Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery

Therapist Catherine Gildiner highlights five of her most remarkable and inspirational patients in this engrossing story. A beautiful workaholic whose narcissistic, careless mother used to greet her every morning as a child with the phrase "Good morning, Monster"; a young woman whose father abandoned her at the age of nine and her younger siblings in a remote cottage in the dead of winter; and a successful, first-generation Chinese immigrant musician experiencing sexual dysfunction were among them.

Every patient has a secret to reveal that won't be solved for years. They come to Gildiner for assistance in getting beyond a current obstacle in their life, only to find that the cause of their misery has long since been forgotten.

Each patient exemplifies self-reflection, stoicism, tenacity, and forgiveness as they struggle unwaveringly to confront the truth, much as in more modern classics like Educated and The Glass Castle. Gildiner's narrative of her travels with them is affecting, perceptive, and sometimes quite humorous. A behind-the-scenes glimpse inside the therapist's office, Good Morning Monster shows how the healing process may mend even the most unfathomable scars.