How to Do the Work

The anticipated book by the well-known clinical psychologist, Dr. Nicole LePera, or as known as @the.holistic.psychologist on Instagram, came out a few months back called, How to Do the Work: Recognize your patterns, Heal From Your Past, and Create Your Self. As many in the field, I was excited to get my hands on a copy and pre-ordered it as soon as I was able. I have followed her on social media and I felt like I was able to resonate with a lot of the things that she was posting. I do view myself as more of a holistic therapist along with the wonderful ladies at Health in Tandem, therefore I felt like this may be something that may interest others as well! 

Let me preface that this review is strictly my opinion. Although this book has a lot of great and knowledgeable information, it is nothing new, at least to someone in the field. After many years in school and practicing, it is something that we have been taught over and over again.I do believe that if you are curious about psychology and would like to learn more, specifically in regard to your inner child (your true or original self that is not as present in your everyday life once you have reached adulthood.), this would be a good place to start. This book would be considered to be a self-help book and Dr.LePera makes it very easy to understand the different concepts. Dr. LePera’s book has the intention of helping us, the readers, recognize and heal from the traumas that we have faced, specifically as a child. Throughout this book, it provides exercises and journal prompts to help assist in working through the specific areas of awareness to help you find the healing.

I do believe that it is very important to peel back the layers of what makes you who you are and to be able to heal from events or experiences that have impacted you negatively in the past. It is evident that everyone has their own backstory, their own way of coping with things, and their own way of dealing with their trauma. I do give Dr. LePera the credit that she deserves in giving folks the insight and the tools to be able to get their power back. While doing so, there are times when Dr.LePera comes off as a bit tone deaf. Dr. LePera is all about empowerment, which is what I strive to incorporate in my own practice, along with self-healing. The way that Dr. LePera views this, is that we all essentially have the skills and tools in our kit to process and work through our traumas. This is a viewpoint that I can get behind. What I do not support is Dr. LePera’s focus on taking responsibility for said traumas or your diagnosis. Yes, to some extent, you, as the client, will need to explore these things in session with your therapist to see some progress, but by no means are you responsible for the things that you witnessed as you were a child, the sexual assault that occured to you, the domestic violence that you survived, etc. It would be incredibly inappropriate to think a sexual assault survivor is responsible for their attack, among other things. 

All in all, did I learn something new, yes. Are there some things that I can incorporate into my work, yes. Like I mentioned earlier, I do believe that this book is a great way to start if you are interested in looking into psychology in more of a holistic lens. Many, if not all of us can use this book to our advantage and utilize it to give us a different approach to how we are reacting to different experiences or adding another tool in our toolbox. I would preface to take some of Dr. LePera’s experiences and mindset with a grain of salt. We are all people, we all have different experiences, we all have different viewpoints, and we all have different privileges and that is okay.

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