Good Morning, Monster

Five Heroic Journeys to Recovery

By: Catherine Gildiner

Narrated by: Deborah Burgess

Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

A therapist creates moving portraits of five of her most memorable patients, men and women she considers psychological heroes.

Catherine Gildiner is a best-selling memoirist, a novelist, and a psychologist in private practice for 25 years. In Good Morning, Monster, she focuses on five patients who overcame enormous trauma - people she considers heroes. With a 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.

©2019 Catherine Gildiner (P)2019 Viking

Critic reviews

“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.” (Rona Maynard, author of My Mother’s Daughter and former editor)