To Heal a Wounded Heart
The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Early on in her clinical practice, psychoanalyst Pilar Jennings was presented with a particularly difficult case: a six-year-old girl who, traumatized by loss, had stopped speaking. Challenged by the limitations of her training to respond effectively to the isolating effect of childhood trauma, Jennings takes the unconventional path of inviting her friend Lama Pema—a kindly Tibetan Buddhist monk who experienced his own life-shaping trauma at a very young age—into their sessions. In the warm therapeutic space they create, the young girl slowly begins to heal. The result is a fascinating case study of the intersection of Western psychology and Buddhist teachings. Pilar’s story is for therapists, parents, Buddhists, or any of us who hold out the hope that even the deepest childhood wounds can be the portal to our capacity to love and be loved.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her uneven memoir about the ways Buddhism informs different lives, Jennings, a psychoanalyst, weaves together three stories: her unsettled childhood shuttling between her Peruvian mother and her Scottish-Canadian father; the refugee background of her friend Lama Pema, a Tibetan Buddhist monk; and the unstable family life, resulting in selective mutism, of her six-year-old psychotherapy patient whom she calls Martine. Jennings demonstrates clear insight and deep compassion for all these figures, and has a flowing prose style that incorporates an eye for detail, such as the descriptions of the games she played with Martine as part of therapy. Despite this, the work disappoints. Jennings touches on Buddhism rather superficially, relating the facts of her interactions with Lama Pema that helped her and her patient without offering deeper analysis or introspection into the reasons. The story line spends too much time focused on Jennings's own feelings, and relatively mild troubles, rather than the experiences of her patient and her friend. Without a clear theme or thesis behind the story, the book is pleasant without being particularly insightful.