The story
Seven women join a therapy group. Each arrives carrying something: grief, anger, confusion, a life that looks good but feels hollow. Over ten weeks, they discover that healing doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens when you’re finally seen by people who stay anyway.
At the center is Dr. Hannah Erickson, a psychologist who’s spent decades guiding others through their unfinished business. In her private journals, she admits what therapists rarely say out loud: the patterns she sees in her clients mirror her own.
This is a story about transformation, told honestly. No breakthroughs in one session. No tidy endings. Just the messy, slow work of being human in front of other humans.
What You’ll Find
- Seven women, one psychologist, ten weeks
- The patterns we repeat until we don’t
- What it feels like to be truly seen
- The ritual that closes each session: “What Went Well”
- Recognition of your own unfinished business
This isn’t a self-help book. It’s a story about what happens when people risk being honest with each other.
This is fiction
This novel is not based on my clients or any real therapy group.
All characters, scenarios, and therapeutic interactions are products of my imagination. While the book is informed by my twenty-five years of professional experience, eighteen years of teaching group therapy at Pepperdine University, and my own work as a therapy group member, it does not depict any actual person or group.
Client confidentiality is sacred and absolute. Their stories are theirs alone, held in confidence.
This is fiction—shaped by my professional expertise and personal experience in therapy, not by anyone else’s journey.and teaching. I’m selective about which organizations I partner with, and I work best with teams ready to move beyond scripts toward solution-focused approaches.
Why I wrote this
I’ve watched transformation happen thousands of times. Not the dramatic version—the real one. Someone finally says what they’ve been carrying. Another person nods. The room shifts.
I wanted to show what that looks like. Not what I imagine it might be like—what it actually is, drawn from my clinical training, my teaching, and my own therapy work.
What you will find
This isn’t a self-help book. It’s a story about what happens when people risk being honest with each other.
The patterns we repeat until we don’t
Recognition of your own unfinished business
What it feels like to be truly seen
Seven women, one psychologist, eight weeks
The ritual that closes each session: “What Went Well”
The “What Went Well” Ritual
At the end of each session, the women share one thing that went well that week. Not big accomplishments—small truths:
- “I didn’t apologize when I didn’t need to.”
- “I said no without explaining myself.”
- “I asked for what I needed.”
This ritual runs through the book.
I’m in the final stages of publishing my book. I will publish insights from inside the therapy room—drawn from my clinical training, my teaching at Pepperdine, and my own work as a therapy group member. Never from my clients’ confidential experiences.
Free. No therapy clichés. Real insights.
Coming 2026
What Went Well: Inside a Psychologist’s Journal
Subscribers get first access to book excerpts, updates on the publishing journey, and the chance to share what themes resonate.