Christie Tate: Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life

In her New York Times bestselling memoir Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life, we learn about the wonderful, terrible day that Christie Tate learned that she was named the top student in her law school class. She also finally had her eating disorder under control. Why then was she driving through Chicago fantasizing about her own death? Enter Dr. Rosen, a therapist who calmly assures her that if she joins one of his psychotherapy groups, he can transform her life. All she has to do is show up and be honest. About everything-her eating habits, childhood, sexual history, etc. Ms. Tate is skeptical, insisting that that she is defective, beyond cure. But Dr. Rosen issues a nine-word prescription that will change everything: “You don’t need a cure, you need a witness.”
So begins her entry into the strange, terrifying, and ultimately life-changing world of group therapy. Ms. Tate is initially put off by Dr. Rosen’s outlandish directives, but as her defenses break down and she comes to trust Dr. Rosen and to depend on the sessions and the prescribed nightly phone calls with various group members, she begins to understand what it means to connect.
Ms. Tate will be interviewed by Heidi Stevens, “Balancing Act” columnist for the Chicago Tribune.