This book was very helpful to me (even without sitting down and formally doing the exercises) because it does repeat a variation on the same lesson over and over. The chapters build on each other and I need repetition to make something stick. However, there are definitely elements that are outdated and frustrating, the biggest for me being that she is the stereotype of an autism mom. Any autistic readers should go in knowing that whenever she brings up her son, it is probably going to be triggering at worst or offensive and frustrating at the least. They generally only come up in the “My Story” sections at the end of a particular subject or chapter. Proceed with caution. But a generally interesting book I highlighted a lot, and I’ve already started to notice a difference in my self talk when I make a mistake.

This is kind of a hard book to rate. Overall the information is very helpful, and I can see how self-compassion will help me going forward. But I didn't like a lot of the author's side remarks and her complaints of being the mother of an autistic son. It was also quite repetitive and the narrator made me want to fall asleep sometimes lol. Overall I learned a lot though.