One of those self-help books held in high esteem, I've seen. There's a lot of useful information and things that speak to my experiences and feelings, but throughout I was made uncomfortable by the overt religiosity/spirituality of the language. He's also a proponent of the 12 Step program; I'd rather not get into the specifics about why exactly it's so terrible, but that's already something that is a huge turn off. He relies way too much on religious, specifically Christian, references to make this truly universally accessible. Maybe I don't have a Higher Power, and you might as well go right ahead and say "God" because that's what is obviously being suggested.

I'd say a lot of the exercises in the second part are reminiscent of things I can imagine seeing in a lot of other self-help books. Not to say they can't be helpful, though I can't truly attest to that because I haven't tried any yet. I plan to, if only to be open, so perhaps I will update this review with my opinions of them and whether they seem to be helpful.

It is undeniably true, however, the overarching message he has about toxic shame and how to heal from it: self-compassion. It's not something a lot of us want to accept or would rather dismiss as corny because it does take a lot of work to achieve.

There's also this extremely prudish view of sex and sexuality at the very end, but I guess that's to be expected of a theologian. Can't expect someone like that to have a radical or simply neutral concept of sex.

I also have to roll my eyes at the outdated view of gay and trans people (though he seems to lump them both together... because there is nothing specific about trans people). I can't be shocked, though, considering how old this book is, but it was annoying to have the tired "no one would choose to be gay" bullshit thrown at me.