Think Like a Therapist: Six Life-Changing Insights for Leading a Good Life

By Stephen Joseph

Drawing on three decades of work as a psychologist, psychotherapist, university professor and researcher, Stephen Joseph distils his vital knowledge for general readers and reveals how the secrets of enduring change are available to us all

Life throws a lot of unexpected and unpleasant things at us. Many people just struggle on, but others find someone to talk to, often a therapist trained to listen to their concerns. They turn up with problems – failing relationships, stalled careers, conflicts, feelings of upset – that all seem very real to them in the moment. They may say they just want to ‘get back to normal’ or ‘get back on track’. But sometimes things have changed too much to go back. More than that, they come to realize that their life wasn’t really on track in the first place. Getting on track now means something much bigger.

Over months, or years, therapist Stephen Joseph works with his clients to peel away the layers and find something deeper behind their discontents and identify new understandings of what really matters. These revelations often seem to come out of the blue – lightbulb moments in which people suddenly gain a new perspective on how to lead their lives. In Think Like a Therapist, Joseph now shares the most important of these realizations: the six ways in which we can begin to see ourselves and the world anew, without distortion, and embark on a road to personal growth and a more emotionally mature life.

There is an old Zen proverb that says: ‘When the student is ready the teacher will appear’. For deep personal change, you need the spark that lights the fire, and that is what this book offers. For some, it may be an alternative to therapy, for others it may be a companion to therapy, and for still others it may be the beginning of a life-long therapeutic journey into becoming oneself. These are often hard-earned lessons that come at great cost, such as illness or bereavement. But, Joseph says, with an open mind, at the right time, such lessons can be learned by anyone.