Working from the Heart: A Therapist's Guide to Heart-Centered Psychotherapy

When therapists work in a heart-centered way, they feel freer to be both professionals and loving human beings. Working from the Heart shows that a therapist's expressions of nonsexual, nonromantic love are a core ingredient in effective psychotherapy. Using a heart-centered perspective, each chapter in Working from the Heart examines a particular aspect of therapeutic work that has been insufficiently addressed in traditional training and supervision. Chapter topics include removing patients' psychological blocks to receiving love; enabling patients to access their higher selves to solve complex life dilemmas; how to slog through professional and personal conflicts about touch in order to discern in what situations and with which patients gentle touch is the right therapeutic action; why a heart-centered approach is so important for male patients; how therapists can engage their "Big Hearts," aspects of their higher selves, during sessions; and how to create sanctuary for patients and therapists alike.

Working from the Heart addresses these issues in an informal style in order to make the book more accessible to a wider spectrum of readers. William P. Ryan is sharing his ideas, gleaned from thirty-five years of experience, and inviting a conversation.