- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
A deeply moving and revealing chronicle of the challenges and breakthroughs that come from a wholly new practice of one-hour, one-time-only sessions, from one of the most prominent psychotherapists of our time
Facing memory loss at age ninety-three as well as the fallout from a global pandemic that moved much of daily life online, legendary psychotherapist and bestselling author Irvin D. Yalom was forced to vastly reconsider the shape of his sessions with patients. Rather than throw in the towel in the face of change, Dr. Yalom considered head-on the limitations imposed by these new realities and revolutionized his practice. Turning his focus to what might be achieved in a one-hour, one-time-only meeting between patient and practitioner, Dr. Yalom employed an even more concerted use of his “here and now” approach.
In Hour of the Heart, Yalom recounts some of these intense, life-changing sessions, exploring an array of human predicaments and his own late-career development as a therapist. In recounting these consultations, he shows how a therapist’s willingness to be open helps patients let down their own guards, leading to a deeper and more immediate connection—one necessary to achieving profound realizations in just sixty minutes. This vulnerability led Yalom to disclose details about his personal life that he might previously have kept hidden from patients, including his traumatic childhood in Washington, DC, the evolution of his thinking about philosophy and psychotherapy, and the recent death of his wife. Throughout, he pushes the boundaries of self-revelation as a therapeutic tool.
Life is precious and our time together short. Written in collaboration with his son, Hour of the Heart shows us how to relate to each other better in the moment, with more honesty and vulnerability. That hour of connection, occurring during a time of isolation and grief for so many, helped to sustain both patient and therapist, and enriched Yalom’s vision of what psychotherapy can do.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: A Day in the Life of a Very Old Therapist
- Chapter 2: If I Could Climb Out of That Hovel
- Chapter 3: No Second Dates
- Chapter 4: Colonization, or Showing Off
- Chapter 5: Like a Comet Completing Its Orbit
- Chapter 6: Memory, Ah Memory
- Chapter 7: Sparring with Serenity
- Chapter 8: Invasione and Aggressione
- Chapter 9: Windows of Why, Whispers of When
- Chapter 10: Alone, Alone, Alone
- Chapter 11: Bartering
- Chapter 12: Albert’s Anxiety
- Chapter 13: Sparring with Serenity, Dueling with Trauma
- Chapter 14: Tough Love
- Chapter 15: Let’s Switch Roles
- Chapter 16: My Worst Nightmare
- Chapter 17: Memory, Memory, Where Art Thou?
- Chapter 18: Judy Steinberg’s Birthday
- Chapter 19: Dull Days in London
- Chapter 20: A Terrible Beginning
- Chapter 21: A Wonderful Beginning
- Chapter 22: Dementia, Ah Dementia
- Afterword
- Acknowledgments
- About the Authors
- Also by Irvin D. Yalom, MD
- Copyright
- About the Publisher