It’s Not Always Depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect to Your Authentic Self

Psychoanalyst Hendel offers an accessible, somewhat overenthusiastic first book about how individuals can implement their own course of accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), an emotion-based (as opposed to insight-based) therapy approach. The author’s unrestrained conviction aside, the congenial voice, sound advice, and self-help/textbook approach to the subject are engaging. Quizzes, exercises, and writing prompts are meant to help readers access and control their emotions by working the “change triangle,” a simple diagram used to clarify the process. Some may be attracted to the author’s passion for her topic, while others may find it disconcerting. Hendel backs up her assertions with case studies and academic endnotes but offers no counterarguments or potential flaws. The author points out that AEDP draws on a number of established psychological methods, such as talk therapy, and that the approach is focused on the source of issues such as anxiety rather than solely on symptoms. The question that Hendel leaves unresolved at the end is whether all readers will be able to self-diagnose and use the change-triangle concept to grow emotionally without the help of a trained therapist. [em](Feb.) [/em]