Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life

The first-ever narrative of a guarded, overachieving, self-lacerating young lawyer who, after being forced to do so, grudgingly consents to strip emotionally and mentally in front of her psychotherapy group of six strangers, ultimately discovering herself and a human connection.

Christie Tate, who had finally conquered her eating condition, had recently been declared the best student in her law school class. So why was she daydreaming about her own death while travelling across Chicago? Why did she hope that her accomplishments would finally put an end to the loneliness and depression that still tormented her?

Enter Dr. Rosen, a therapist who quietly tells her he can change her life if she enters one of his psychotherapy groups. She just has to be truthful and present. about everything, including her background, sexual past, and food habits. Christie is dubious, certain that she is flawed and incurable. However, Dr. Rosen gives a life-changing nine-word prescription: "You need a witness, not a cure."

Thus starts her journey into the peculiar, horrifying, and eventually transformative realm of group therapy. Christie is first turned off by Dr. Rosen's bizarre instructions, but as her barriers melt and she starts to rely on the sessions and the required evening phone conversations with different group members, Christie starts to realise what it means to connect.

Group is a deliciously addictive read, and we get a front-row seat to the brave, thrilling, painful, and hilarious journey that is group therapy—an underappreciated process that breaks you down and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit—with Christie as our guide. Despite her own doubts about her ability to connect and be intimate, Christie is hopeful despite her own shortcomings.