Hour of the Heart

‘After some six decades of therapeutic practice and writing, I learned in a new and meaningful way how we humans – whether we’re in the cool, distanced medium of Zoom, or in the heat of real life – can create a startlingly honest and heartfelt connection that in a single hour can change one’s life.’

What does ‘the father of group therapy’ do at the age of 90, when he is still advising patients in the therapy sessions that have been his life’s work, and yet must face his increasing frailties and even his own mortality? Rather than melt into retirement, Dr Yalom develops another revolutionary approach.

In Hour of the Heart, Dr Yalom captures profound moments with his patients that happen in the span of just one hour, with people he will never see again. Taking place over two years before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, and amid Dr Yalom’s grief over losing his wife, these sessions would, as Dr Yalom writes, ‘help to sustain my client and would profoundly alter my vision of what psychotherapy can do’.

For any fans of Dr Yalom’s work, and for therapists and for those in training, Hour of the Heart is a collection of deeply moving personal stories that will tap into how powerful authentic human connection can be. While these one-hour sessions are, in many cases, just the start of these patients’ journeys, Dr Yalom’s insights, and his willingness to open himself up to his patients in a way rarely seen in therapy, are truly illuminating.

‘For renowned psychotherapist Irvin Yalom, “it’s the relationship that heals”. This philosophy is poignantly enacted in his account of how he adapted a career of therapeutic practice to the reality of his failing memory … Yalom’s undiminished curiosity, his skilful and candid deployment of his own flaws and his ability to meet the demands of the moment make for richly rewarding case histories informed by personal reflections on identity, ageing, loss, and death.‘
-Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Hour of the Heart is a collection of vignettes of these one-hour sessions, and the book acknowledges the quiet heroism required to engage in therapy and to examine oneself to best enjoy life and to accept mortality … Hour of the Heart demystifies the psychiatrist as some preternatural telepathist to a person who is fallibly human but has turned a metaphysical x-ray on themselves. The book has an interesting effect on the reader, inducing a kind of mindfulness a real-life therapy session may provide.‘
-Paul Cowling, ArtsHub

Praise for A Matter of Death and Life-
‘For over half a century, the eminent psychiatrist Irvin Yalom has dazzled the world with his stories of the human psyche packed with wisdom, insight, and humour. Now, with stunning candour and courage, he shares with us the most difficult experience of his life- the loss of his wife and steadfast companion since adolescence. Partners to the end, including in the co-writing of this book, they share an indelible portrait of bereavement – the terror, pain, denial, and reluctant acceptance. But what we are left with is much more than a profound story of enduring loss – it’s an unforgettable and achingly beautiful story of enduring love. I will be thinking about this for years to come.‘
-Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Author Biography

Irvin D. Yalom (Author) Irvin D. Yalom is emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. The author of two definitive psychotherapy textbooks, Dr Yalom has written several books for the general reader, including Love’s Executioner, Staring at the Sun, Creatures of a Day, and Becoming Myself; and the novels When Nietzsche Wept; The Schopenhauer Cure, and The Spinoza Problem. Dr Yalom lives in Palo Alto and San Francisco, California.

Benjamin Yalom (Author) Benjamin Yalom is a San Diego-based psychotherapist, with an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, who focuses on values, relationships, and existential concerns. He is a long-time writing collaborator with his father, Irvin D. Yalom. Prior to his doctoral studies in Marriage and Family Therapy, Ben was the visionary force behind foolsFURY theatre, which helped transform San Francisco’s performing arts scene in the early 2000s. He is also an award-winning fiction writer.