How did you decide on the name of the book?
Since so many people are hesitant to start therapy, I specifically wrote this book for people who were in the stage where they were just thinking about it. The book What to Expect When You’re Expecting had been so helpful with my anxiety early in my pregnancies, and I wanted to write a similar book to let people know what to expect from therapy.

What inspired you to write it?
When I was 21, I sought therapy because I was in a difficult marriage and I was unhappy. I had no idea how it would end up changing my life. While I was in therapy, I wished that I had a book to guide me through the process.

Later, when I was working in employee development and human resources, I had plenty of people come to me with personal problems. I encouraged them to seek therapy for serious or long-lasting difficulties. When I found that I was answering the same questions about the therapeutic process again and again, I finally decided to write it all down.

Although I have a background in psychology, I’m not a therapist. This might be surprising to some people, considering I’ve written a book about therapy. But my motivation was to help people go through something I’d gone through, and to let them know that they can feel better.

Even though research shows that therapy works for most people, most of the time, there are still a lot of misconceptions about it, and I wanted to dispel the myths. I was determined to explain therapy and basic psychological theory in a way that most people could understand.

How long did it take you?
Including researching, writing, and publishing, it took five years. I talked to therapists and interviewed clients, as well as read over twenty books and numerous articles on psychotherapy.

Why did you decide to include poetry in the book?
As I was interviewing clients, many of them shared with me that they kept a journal or did some type of writing while they were in therapy. Writing is often cathartic, and many people find that the by-product of working through all the negativity in therapy is a surge in creativity. Several people offered to show me what they had written, and I found myself looking at poetry that was so moving, I decided to use it in the book. It runs the gamut, from near-despair to elation, and I thought it might help readers to identify with others who had gone through a similar experience.

Why did you choose roses for the cover?
When I’m working on a manuscript, it helps me to picture the completed book in my mind, including the cover. I’ve always liked the metaphor of people blossoming like flowers, and my mother is a painter, so I asked her to paint roses in three stages of unfolding.