Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart

"This book goes beyond simple meditative practices, by helping the reader free themselves from established maladaptive habits that not only harm others but deteriorate our well being. Tara Goleman combines Buddhists fundamentals with schema therapy to give us a deeper understanding about the dynamic-self that help us to come to better terms with reality.
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~ Written on 2008-05-09

"This is a psychological self-help book which takes the approach of combining 'mindfulness' with 'schema therapy'.

Mindfulness is a Buddhist method of meditation in which the practitioner pays attention to the free flowing thoughts in his mind in order to understand precisely how he thinks and what is behind his thoughts. This is very different from the more well know meditation practice in which these thoughts are dismissed and the mind concentrates on a relaxing point of focus, such as inhaling and exhaling.

Schema therapy is a new form of cognitive therapy which identifies repeat patterns of behavior that originate from disturbed childhood experiences. A schema is a cluster of habits (automatic thoughts and behaviors). There are ten different schemas. The first five schemas originate in early childhood and have to do with parental influence They are Abandonment, Deprivation, Subjugation, Mistrust and Unlovability. The next five schemas originate later in childhood, or even in adulthood, and have to do with peer-group influence. They are Exclusion, Vulnerability, Failure, Perfectionism, and Entitlement. The therapy challenges these bad habits replacing them with more logical, conscious patterns of behavior. Schema therapy was developed by Dr. Jeffery Young, who is a protégé of Dr. Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy.


The main emphasis of the book is on mindfulness as a method of exploring the motivations of schemas, and of distancing oneself from the habitual behavior by maintaining a calm, distant observation of ones thoughts and emotions. The notion of building equanimity features strongly. Most chapters end with mindful exercises you can try by yourself at home. Schema therapy receives a brief three chapter overview. Then in the next eight chapters schemas are mentioned largely in terms of providing examples of maladaptive behavior on which mindfulness is demonstrated to act. The last four chapters of the book develop the idea of meditation as a method of 'spiritual' development beyond ordinary psychological self-improvement.

If you are interested in learning more about schema therapy try Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide.
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~ Written on 2008-04-24

"I became so excited about this book that I wanted to see what other people thought about it. While the reviews in the book itself were positive the ones I read here were disappointing. I wanted to write a review that would encourage people to read this book because I found a lot of answers for my personal dilemmas in Tara's book. I was so pleased with the information I got from the book that I bought the CD even though the review I read here for the CD was not positive. I loved her voice and the background music. I identified with the tea ceremony because some one once told me how concentrating on the act of making tea in a teapot added to the relaxation one is usually seeking when stopping to have a cup of tea. I am replaying the CD over and over because my mind wants to resist the enlightenment I experience each time I hear it. I even found a schema that is particularly troublesome for me when listening to the cd that I did not see when I was reading the book. That proved to me how my schemas want to keep me deluded about my true feelings. I have had similar experiences to most of the examples in the book and I got great ideas for addressing them. I particularly got the part about the quarter second opportunity to make a different choice. Now when I get a feeling of dis-ease I turn my awareness on it and begin dialoging with myself about what I am feeling. Now I find that most of the time if I will not react a better outcome will result. I am not willing to do long meditation retreats but i am very interested in meditating more in order to experience that gap where real peace resides. I know it is there and I have felt it in the past and hope to achieve it on a regular basis. I believe we all have the ability to experience it. I do not believe you have to be a Zen monk to achieve the tranquility she speaks of. I am glad I did not read the reviews until after I read the book. If you are co-dependent like I have been it is one of the best explanations for why we are co-dependant and what to do about becoming interdependent like we were supposed to be. I want to thank the Author for writing this book. I especially like the index and Notes. I am grateful to have found this book."
~ Written on 2007-12-29

"I have not read the book but tried to listen to the audiotape version and found it hopelessly tedious. Some of the problem may be as a reviewer of the CD version mentioned, that the author has no gift for narration.

The mix of Buddhism and psychology, two subjects I usually find interesting, doesn't work, at least as far as I got - two tapes on - before I stopped listening.

The Buddhism focused on the author's near obsession with the Zen tea ceremony, which she describes in a way that makes it sound about as spiritual as operating a Mister Coffee. Whatever she gets out of the tea ceremony, she is not communicating it here. And if you are not fascinated with the Zen tea ceremony this book may not be for you.

Meanwhile, the psychological bits are mostly based on case studies of the type that an old newspaperman used to call the "suspicious anecdote." The author always seems to be a heroic therapist, and the patient seems to attain Buddha-like insights within minutes of their encounter. The stories sound like outtakes from a "can-you-top-this" contest in the bar of a psychotherapists' convention.

In the end, listening to this book felt like having my teeth cleaned by a well-meaning but ham-handed dental hygienist. The best part was the Zen silence after I stopped listening.


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~ Written on 2007-04-10

"Books have been written about mindfulness and they have been written about cognitive-behavioral therapy. The strength of this book is the way in which the author seamlessly combines them and convincingly shows how they complement and enhance one another. In short, mindfulness allows one greater access to experience, to one's own thoughts, emotions, sensations--including the troubling ones, which we so often suppress or avoid. In terms of therapy, awareness is invaluable. But even for someone not in therapy, it's equally essential. Mindfulness allows us to understand and break out of automatic, self-harming patterns. Bennett-Goleman gives a good roadmap of how to accomplish that."
~ Written on 2007-03-27