Are You Considering Therapy? is a guidebook for people who are thinking about going into therapy but aren’t quite sure where to start. It looks at the various aspects of choosing a therapist, from sorting through the numerous types of treatment on offer, to deciding whether an individual practitioner is someone you might want to work with.

The book not only explains the differences between a psychiatrist, a psychotherapist and a psychologist, but also gives some sense of the sorts of things that might happen in a session — as well as looking at the many and varied notions of ‘cure’. For example, while a behavioural counsellor might make it their mission to rid you of your symptom as quickly as possible, a Lacanian psychoanalyst may consider it their ethical duty to see you through an experience of subjective destitution. (The book would also explain what on earth this means.)

Are You Considering Therapy? aims to treat all therapies equally, and to allow readers to make their own choices about what might suit them. As well as outlining different treatments, the book explores the possibilities of going into therapy one-to-one, with a child or partner, or with a group. It tries to be as light-hearted as possible about this serious and often anxiety-provoking process, and to speak straightforwardly about a notoriously unstraightforward field.

Cover illustration by Daisy de Villeneuve

"In Are You Considering Therapy?, Anouchka Grose leads us through the forests of available treatments, from the original theories of Freud, Jung, and fellow psychoanalysts to the proliferating schools of modern therapy. Grose writes with concision, with knowledge and balance, and what is a happy surprise in this territory of mind-control, she possesses an unbiased and delightful wit. An enjoyable read and a trustworthy map to all the new and newest therapies! At last!" --Irma Kurtz, Agony Aunt, Cosmopolitan