A therapist creates moving portraits of five of her most memorable patients, men and women she considers psychological heroes.Catherine Gildiner is a bestselling memoirist, a novelist, and a psychologist in private practice for twenty-five years. In Good Morning, Monster, she focuses on five patients who overcame enormous trauma–people she considers heroes. With a novelist’s storytelling gift, … novelist’s storytelling gift, Gildiner recounts the details of their struggles, their paths to recovery, and her own tale of growth as a therapist.
The five cases include a successful but lonely musician suffering sexual dysfunction; a young woman whose father abandoned her and her siblings in a rural cottage; an Indigenous man who’d endured great trauma at a residential school; a young woman whose abuse at the hands of her father led to a severe personality disorder; and a glamorous workaholic whose negligent mother had greeted her each morning with “Good morning, Monster.”
Each patient presents a mystery, one that will only be unpacked over years. They seek Gildiner’s help to overcome an immediate challenge in their lives, but discover that the source of their suffering has been long buried. It will take courage to face those realities, and creativity and resourcefulness from their therapist.
Each patient embodies self-reflection, stoicism, perseverance, and forgiveness as they work unflinchingly to face the truth. Gildiner’s account of her journeys with them is moving, insightful, and sometimes humorous. It offers a behind-the-scenes look into the therapist’s office and explains how the process can heal even the most unimaginable wounds.
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Good Morning Monster was a very challenging read not only do we meet the heroic story of five people who survive situations that many will never be able to handle but we also learn that all of us have a past that can affect our present and future moments and experiences.
I admire the 5 heroes in this book, especially Alana’s story, which left me with my emotions all over the place. her strength and hope were always there no matter how hard things were getting she was always hoping, and that showed me in a way how human beings can be very resilient no matter how hard the situation. she focused only on what was keeping her alive and that was to see her sister safe, she could endure all the hard things but she will never give up for her sister.
How can you survive such a terrible life? because she had someone to care, someone to save and that gave her the power to be able to hold on and to keep fighting till the end.
While I was reading all these cases I kept asking myself “how could people like this exist?!?” so evil, so empty. I kept asking this over and over during the entire book because in my mind it was not comprehensible, that someone could be capable of such atrocities. what happened to them to be so cruel and hurtful, till the point they won’t care what happened to their own flesh and blood.
In Good Morning Monster we read many situations like this, people whose life was completely “change” and not for the better because someone in their family didn’t believe in boundaries, respect, empathy, or even love.
When does a person feel entitled to destroy someone’s faith, smiles, and even the opportunity to have a normal childhood?
This is the story of 5 heroes who had to literally fight for their sanity and even their lives. abuse, negligence, hardship, all 5 stories connect in similar ways, Parents who didn’t know how to care for other human beings, parents who didn’t know how to be parents.
This was my first book by Catherine Gildiner and I really enjoyed it so much. I felt so much respect for her while reading all these cases, I kept thinking “how could she be so strong and not cry” I cried a lot reading Peter story, how could his mother be so cold, how could she treat him that way, so many moments I only wanted to embrace him. Danny who suffered so much in the hands of evil people who didn’t care about his memories, to read how Natives are treated is just heartbreaking, the way they destroyed his family, trying to erase his roots. Alana, she endured so much, she was a warrior, she really deserves a medal for protecting her sister that way. I see her as Joan of Arc she really is a Goddess that deserves so much love. Madeline, he strength was admirable every time her mom called her that way he called her, I broke in tears, how can you be so cruel with someone that has not cruelty at all, that is just starting in life?!?
Overall Good Morning Monster was a story that really broke me and put me back in one peace. The story of 5 heroes, finally finding their light at the end of the tunnel a light very well deserved.
All my love to the wonderful 5 heroes in this book, you guys deserve so much love.
Good Morning, Monster is a fascinating look at the therapeutic psychological practice of Catherine Gildiner, a fascinating memoir of how she dealt with five clients, all so severely emotionally damaged that they had to be superheroes to survive their early lives. Gildiner charts her own course, beginning with her very first patient, as she learns the things she didn’t learn in her formalized schooling. She gradually becomes able to modify her approach to handle the specifics of a client’s case and writes about their growth and her own with grace, humor, and humility.
In this compilation, the reader meets five of Gildiner’s most difficult cases. She expertly grapples such diverse and difficult topics as child abuse, neglect, abandonment, gender-based violence, sexual abuse and trauma. These people have been so psychologically traumatized that they developed maladaptive behaviors such as trauma-based triggers, denial, and shame to compensate, yet their spirits remain indomitable. They choose to deal with these internal issues, to heal themselves, to grow emotionally, to become “whole.”
These stories are about recovery from childhood trauma with the requisite emotional recovery and growth; thus they are both difficult to read because of the subject matter, yet heartwarming, heartbreaking, and inspirational. Gildiner offers a glimpse of the role of the psychotherapist: to become involved in a reciprocal relationship to help clients resolve their innermost issues.
As a family practice physician, I enjoyed this glimpse into a practitioner of a related field. Many times, as a primary care physician, I’ve had to refer patients to therapists, and it was interesting to see the inner workings of psychologist and patient.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
In these riveting case studies, Catherine Gildiner takes the reader on five voyages deep into the hell of monstrous misbehaviour by mothers, fathers, and institutions, and shows us the scarred child victims who turn into heroes of survival. These stories are almost mythic in their power and veer close to tragedy, but eventually lead to redemption with the help of a therapist who acknowledges her own mistakes and seeks to know herself better as well as the patients she is treating. I couldn’t put this book down.
These compelling, heart-in-throat stories prove no one is “damaged goods.” I’m in awe of the five patients and of Gildiner’s exceptional creativity as she guides each one toward emotional freedom.
I cannot recommend this book enough! This book was so different and original with such inspiring stories. Thank you Catherine Gildiner for sharing these heroic stories/lives with us.
I love non-fiction – give me a great memoir or some juicy true crime and I’m a happy woman. I’ve read some great non-fiction this year and Good Morning, Monster is among the best.
Catherine Gildiner is a therapist who shares “five heroic stories of emotional recovery.” There’s Laura, a young woman who was abandoned at age nine with two younger siblings in an isolated cottage in the winter; Danny, an indigenous Cree man unable to grieve the loss of his wife and daughter; Peter, a successful but lonely musician suffering sexual dysfunction; Alana, a certified genius whose psychopathic father’s abuse resulted in a severe personality disorder; and Madeline, a glamorous workaholic whose mother greeted her each morning of her childhood with “Good morning, Monster.” Each of these blurbs just scratches the surface of the patients’ remarkable stories – the level of trauma each one endured and survived is almost unimaginable.
Beyond the patients’ journeys, you also follow Dr. Gildiner’s path as a new therapist who has to learn as she goes. When she says psychology is like a mystery novel, it’s clearly true – not only is she trying to help her patients find clues as to why they are the way they are, she must also dig for answers on her end, consulting other experts to find the most effective therapy for each person (in a pre-Internet age!). It’s a riveting look at how a doctor works with her patients and what role psychology and therapy can play in changing people’s lives.
If you loved Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb (I did!) or if you want to read truly amazing stories about the perseverance and resilience of people who’ve endured tragic things, pick up Good Morning, Monster. Be warned – it’s not easy to read but I couldn’t put it down. There were times this book broke my heart but it left me feeling nothing but hope.
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press & the author for an advanced copy to review.
Holy cow! this book checks all the boxes. It is technically fiction because the author is a real therapist who once she started her own private practice knew she had to tell theses stories. The author/psychologist admits she often ran two patients together that had similar backgrounds so she could tell the story more efficiently.
Settle in for a shocking ride as you learn just what a person can go through to keep going. We all have a past but some people it is a sheer miracle they are still trying.
This book is not for the academics who will do their own case studies on the 5 people but it is a book for us the readers to know we are not alone. My favorite case study is Laura and the fire she still has lit inside of her.
Mental Health finally be out in front and not hidden away to be ashamed of. Wonderful read if you are looking for something similar to last years’s hit “You should talk to someone.”
Good Morning, Monster is a fascinating look at the therapeutic psychological practice of Catherine Gildiner, a fascinating memoir of how she dealt with five clients, all so severely emotionally damaged that they had to be superheroes to survive their early lives. Gildiner charts her own course, beginning with her very first patient, as she learns the things she didn’t learn in her formalized schooling. She gradually becomes able to modify her approach to handle the specifics of a client’s case and writes about their growth and her own with grace, humor, and humility.
In this compilation, the reader meets five of Gildiner’s most difficult cases. She expertly grapples such diverse and difficult topics as child abuse, neglect, abandonment, gender-based violence, sexual abuse and trauma. These people have been so psychologically traumatized that they developed maladaptive behaviors such as trauma-based triggers, denial, and shame to compensate, yet their spirits remain indomitable. They choose to deal with these internal issues, to heal themselves, to grow emotionally, to become “whole.”
These stories are about recovery from childhood trauma with the requisite emotional recovery and growth; thus they are both difficult to read because of the subject matter, yet heartwarming, heartbreaking, and inspirational. Gildiner offers a glimpse of the role of the psychotherapist: to become involved in a reciprocal relationship to help clients resolve their innermost issues.
As a family practice physician, I enjoyed this glimpse into a practitioner of a related field. Many times, as a primary care physician, I’ve had to refer patients to therapists, and it was interesting to see the inner workings of psychologist and patient.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
This book is very inspiring. It truly shows how strong the human spirit is.