Dispatches from the Couch

"Hettes' writing verges on the poetic as she describes the heartbreaking fear that her suffering is permanent . . . the memoir includes moments of humor and hope, and it is inspiring to chart Hettes' journey from despair to a degree in "self-studies." A moving recollection filled with wisdom and unabashed emotion." - Kirkus Reviews "This is a book for everyone who toys with walling themselves off to live with loneliness." - Betsy Teter, founder of Hub City Press "It's easy enough to label child sexual abuse as horrific, but the acts themselves are only part of the problem. Hettes reveals the crushing, long-term consequences of sexual violation and our culture's collective failure to address it." - Sheri Reynolds, NYT bestselling author of The Rapture of Cannan Stacey is living exactly the right life before she hits the psychological equivalent of a patch of black ice. As Professor Hettes, her classes focus as much on neuroscience's beauty and wonder as its facts and theories. Fellow faculty members see her as a fair but outspoken leader on a campus steeped in the blended patriarchies of academia and southern gentility. At an emotionally charged forum on sexual violence, she takes a stand against a colleague's reckless verbal assault, outing herself as a sexual abuse survivor in the process. Professor Hettes must continue her work even as Stacey finds herself resubmerged in the sights, sounds, and smells of her memories with Mr. Jay, a Pentecostal church deacon. With exceptional candor, Dispatches from the Couch invites readers to take a seat beside her in the office of her new therapist, Piper. This debut memoir reveals the laborious, complex, but promising work of revisiting the past in order to extract its remnants of shame and loneliness from the present.