a story book

fasted forwarded the majority of the book ..too wordy, too many long stories...I was wanting more of HOW to get " past" my past

20 people found this helpful

NOT ENOUGH ON SOLUTIONS

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It does not offer too many solutions or techniques. It is almost like a sales pitch on EMDR, and then cautions you, to only try some of the techniques with a trained professional. It really only offers some minor techniques and solutions to get over your past, anything major is suggested to go to therapy. There needs to be more focus on delving and discovering in the readers PAST issues, rather than the large collection of anecdotes of problems of patients they have treated. The point of giving examples, lost the objective of the title of the book "Getting Past YOUR Past. Instead, it became the story of other people getting over THEIR Past. Ninety percent of the book was descriptions of peoples Past issues, and less than 10% was focussed on the Self Help Techniques the title suggests.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Learning about EMDR and what it is, how it was developed and what it can do is the most interesting. The least interesting was too many stories, and too many details about the problems it was used on, it became boring and repetitive and sometimes depressing to listen to other peoples issues, when one really wants to get to the bottom of their own issues.

Have you listened to any of Karen White’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Beautiful narration.

Was Getting Past Your Past worth the listening time?

It was worth the listening time, because I believe that if we learn just one new "thing" by reading or listening, it was worth the investment of time and money. It has convinced me that EMDR is a valuable technique to be explored.

Any additional comments?

I think the audio book needed to have a supplemental PDF with the few techniques for the EMDR exercises. I also think that the book should have the final chapter with ONLY the exercises and techniques, for ease of use. The benefits of an Audio Book were not utilized to present these techniques. The publisher should have placed "bookmarks" and names (or numbers) with each exercise in the recording, allowing easy access to the techniques for the listener. I will have to listen and search through the book again and then bookmark the techniques in order to use them. This should have been provided by the "publisher".

79 people found this helpful

Fascinating

This book was so fascinating. The explanation of EMDR therapy, the many stories, and the connections the author makes between memories, brain, body, emotions, behavior, etc., were mind blowing to me. Finally all the difficulties I have dealt with my entire life, and the fact that traditional therapy was never quite enough to make lasting change, made complete sense! Contrary to what some reviewers have said, the author does give numerous techniques to use in your own life to access your memories. Doing these exercises has helped me access several troubling memories that I know are still impacting me. Once they are out in the open, then I can process them. I don’t think you necessarily need an EMDR therapist to do that. A regular old therapist will do, or you can process them yourself through writing and the techniques the author gives. The author does stop short of giving you the specifics of the eye movement techniques because, really, an untrained person probably should not do those on their own. I highly recommend this book if you have issues that never quite seem to get resolved and you’re willing to do the work - however you do it. And for those of you who didn’t like the book, here’s a tip: you can always return a book you don’t like and get your credit back. As far as the audiobook itself, I found the narrator to be just fine. She did not sound like “a robot,” and nor did she sound “syrupy.” I imagine that narrating non-fiction is challenging, and I think she does a great job. My biggest complaint about the book? The author must use the phrase “for instance” nine hundred times in this book. It began to grate on my nerves. How about alternating with some synonyms, such as “Example,” “Illustrate,” “Case in point,” etc.? But that was a minor annoyance on the whole. This book was life changing for me.

13 people found this helpful

A competent introduction to a very useful method.

This eye movement methodology of managing and intergrating memory is going to be huge. It opens the door to a wide array of both human and automated techniques for managing the mind and memory in particular. I found the presentation to be a bit whinney and the narrator seemed more emotional than a therapist perhaps ought to be, but the information is quite solid. I have already begun using the techniques on my friends who have recently undergone some emotional trauma.

Some will enjoy it much more than others, but most will benefit from reading it.

Gare Henderson

23 people found this helpful

A 12-hour infomercial for EMDR

I'm a mental health professional. This book is considered to be the one to give clients who may be treated with EMDR. There is some useful information in the first two or three chapters, but much of the text in the subsequent chapters is case studies in which a client undergoes EMDR and suddenly undergoes drastic positive change. While EMDR is very useful for many people, the number of case studies in the book became repetitive. If I was going to give it to a client, I would specify which chapters to read and let them know it was OK to miss the others. The narrator did as good a job as possible; it's tougher to read non-fiction aloud than fiction due to the lower amount of character development and impressions, etc. However, i found myself fast-forwarding through many of the case studies. I played this back at 1.25 times the regular rate because of the repetition. If you want an introduction, it's OK, but be ready for the repetition.

17 people found this helpful

Sorry but can't finish the audio version

This book is incredible but Karen White, G-d bless her, sounds like a monotonous robot so unfortunately my brain just can't grasp the material. I wish she would sound more human and more invested in the material. Sometimes too perfect is too much.

22 people found this helpful

Good EMDR Supplement to Therapy (seek a competent therapist to get help)

This book seems to be written for laypeople to discover how EMDR could help them heal from the past. I am a licensed therapist who is trained to practice EMDR therapy. I sometimes recommend this book to my clients. The eye movements are not as important theses days since there are other ways to use what we call bilateral movements or bilateral stimulation. The book does not teach you EMDR, because that would be inappropriate due to the complexity of trauma work and the professional understanding that is required to practice this therapy in a safe manner; however, it make give you insight as to why you have not been able to overcome your past. EMDR is very effective if conducted by a trained EMDR therapist. Of course there are no guarantees your will get better, but the positive results I see almost daily have made EMDR my primary model of helping.

4 people found this helpful

Absolutely wonderful, when wonderful is so needed!

Read this book, if only to find what is possible for you, your life and those that you love ...
.......... and even those that you do not love so much!! :-) :-) Wish I had access to it years ago.

4 people found this helpful

Great book... highly recommended!

This is a great book with tons of real life examples. The narrator's voice is very pleasent to listen to. The book is also very engaging and easy to follow. Great book... highly recommended.

7 people found this helpful

Narrator is extremely annoying

Would you consider the audio edition of Getting Past Your Past to be better than the print version?

No I wouldn't. I really like the content of this book but both my husband and I cannot stand listening to this narrator. She comes across as overly dramatic and her style really interferes with taking in the message of this book.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Too emotionally syrupy and dramatic.

Any additional comments?

To the publisher: Please do not use this narrator. We had the same reaction to her work in Daring Greatly by Brenee Brown.

23 people found this helpful