Kayla
I will start by saying I'm now aware that Dr. LePera has a large social media following, however, I do not have Instagram and have never heard of her or her work before reading this book. That said, I will only be speaking on this book, not the author, her social media presence, or her "SelfHealing" program.
Overall, I liked the idea of this book more than I liked the actual content. When I first began reading it, I was certain this would be a 5-star read and I was excited to continue reading. However, the more I read the more I found myself questioning the validity of what Dr. LePera was touting. There are definitely great parts of this book, but much of this book is controversial at best and outright misinformation at worst. The entire reason I purchased this book in the first place was to learn more about holistic psychology. I'm all for challenging the disease model of mental illness, as I feel this approach robs many individuals of their agency and limits the paths to healing, but this book took things to an extreme that is just as harmful as the disease model. She encourages the reader to take matters into their own hands with her book and, if that doesn't work, join her online SelfHealer community . Still don't see progress in your mental health? Just work harder!... Yes, it's important to be an active participant in your mental wellness, even if you are seeing a professional and taking medications, but expecting readers to do all of the work themselves and if that doesn't work, joining her online community is harmful and disingenuine. What I loved about the book was the insight into other ways to heal yourself through changing your lifestyle. It's important for people to know that they are able to take matters into their own hands, but also (what this book leaves out) that trained professionals can provide support if needed, and medication if things come to that. There are MANY paths to healing which is something that the disease model does not emphasize. Unfortunately, this book doesn't emphasize the importance of modern medicine when it's needed, which is just as damaging and limiting. There were parts of this book I actually found to be very well done, such as the journal prompts at the end of each chapter and the chapter on boundaries. However, that's not why I picked up this book. I also found some of her writings related to medical conditions to be highly questionable. For example, she writes about how leaky gut syndrome is linked to psychiatric disorders like autism, ADHD, and anxiety as if this is an established fact. She cites a book on the topic (Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Depression, Schizophrenia) which I have never heard of but looked into, and it appears that this book has an entire slew of its own controversies, questionable claims, and misinformed citations. So, while I found a few things in this book to be positive, those things were unfortunately outweighed by the issues I found with this book. I don't even think I could recommend the few helpful chapters to clients, for fear they would want to read more and stumble upon the major problems of this book without knowing any better.
I will start by saying I'm now aware that Dr. LePera has a large social media following, however, I do not have Instagram and have never heard of her or her work before reading this book. That said, I will only be speaking on this book, not the author, her social media presence, or her "SelfHealing" program.
Overall, I liked the idea of this book more than I liked the actual content. When I first began reading it, I was certain this would be a 5-star read and I was excited to continue reading. However, the more I read the more I found myself questioning the validity of what Dr. LePera was touting. There are definitely great parts of this book, but much of this book is controversial at best and outright misinformation at worst. The entire reason I purchased this book in the first place was to learn more about holistic psychology. I'm all for challenging the disease model of mental illness, as I feel this approach robs many individuals of their agency and limits the paths to healing, but this book took things to an extreme that is just as harmful as the disease model. She encourages the reader to take matters into their own hands with her book and, if that doesn't work, join her online SelfHealer community . Still don't see progress in your mental health? Just work harder!... Yes, it's important to be an active participant in your mental wellness, even if you are seeing a professional and taking medications, but expecting readers to do all of the work themselves and if that doesn't work, joining her online community is harmful and disingenuine. What I loved about the book was the insight into other ways to heal yourself through changing your lifestyle. It's important for people to know that they are able to take matters into their own hands, but also (what this book leaves out) that trained professionals can provide support if needed, and medication if things come to that. There are MANY paths to healing which is something that the disease model does not emphasize. Unfortunately, this book doesn't emphasize the importance of modern medicine when it's needed, which is just as damaging and limiting. There were parts of this book I actually found to be very well done, such as the journal prompts at the end of each chapter and the chapter on boundaries. However, that's not why I picked up this book. I also found some of her writings related to medical conditions to be highly questionable. For example, she writes about how leaky gut syndrome is linked to psychiatric disorders like autism, ADHD, and anxiety as if this is an established fact. She cites a book on the topic (Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Depression, Schizophrenia) which I have never heard of but looked into, and it appears that this book has an entire slew of its own controversies, questionable claims, and misinformed citations. So, while I found a few things in this book to be positive, those things were unfortunately outweighed by the issues I found with this book. I don't even think I could recommend the few helpful chapters to clients, for fear they would want to read more and stumble upon the major problems of this book without knowing any better.