“What you feel on the receiving end of an encounter with a patient is real—use it.” Our experiences with this person are important because we’re probably feeling something pretty similar to what everyone else in this patient’s life feels.

choosing, if you don’t recognize that “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” you may deprive yourself of joy.

The four ultimate concerns are death, isolation, freedom, and meaninglessness.

In this room, I’m going to see you, and you’ll try to hide, but I’ll still see you, and it’s going to be okay when I do.

Studies show, and common sense dictates, that most therapists prefer to work with patients who are verbal, motivated, open, and responsible—these are the patients who improve more quickly.

“I wonder why I seem to be more curious about you than you are about yourself?”

“I have something to tell you,” I say. He looks at me like No shit.

we’re all time-traveling into the future and at exactly the same rate: sixty minutes per hour.

himself. Suicide often leaves the survivors with an unsolved mystery: Why? What could have been done to prevent this? Meanwhile, Samantha was always looking for problems in her relationships, searching for issues that would inevitably provide her with a reason