This book gave some great information. It was rather eye opening and insightful. It was well written and kept me quite captivated throughout.

I found myself having to pause at many, many pages as memories of the past arose with some of the insights that were presented in this book. Really not one to be skimmed through.

Practical techniques to identify and give a language to our emotions and hence explain some of our behaviors and feelings are given towards the end of the book. I plan to go through these exercises slowly to better understand myself and hopefully attain a healthier emotional life!

Dr Mayfield writes well and in an accessible way. I appreciated his honest and relevant stories and that of the many clients he has had over the past 15 years.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC, I really enjoyed this well written and insightful part-memoir part guidebook to our emotions and how they affect us. It made complex ideas easy to understand and relatable.

Dr. Mark Mayfield is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and former pastor, who teaches at Colorado Christian University. His goal with The Path to Wholeness is to help us learn the language of emotions. I agree with him when he says this- how to express our emotions-is something nobody ever really teaches us, it’s not taught in schools.

In this book Mayfield shares his journey with mental health issues, providing perspective and experience. We need a real vocabulary when it comes to emotions. And we need to see that mind and body are one.

Each chapter starts with definitions, which are followed by the principles, end with reflection questions and actual action steps.

Now, I didn’t realize when I got the book that it was Christian based. Chapter 9 is the only chapter that’s really heavy on theology. That’s the one thing I didn’t like about this book is the religious aspect- not everyone wants that. But I’m sure many do and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, just not for me. However, it’s only a small part of the book, and I think what the author is saying is really important. I know there are people out there that need this book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Dr. Mayfield, and Tyndale House Publishers