Open When…
By Dr. Julie Smith
PenguinRadomHouse, 402 pages, Rs 899

There are times when we all need a little bit of psychological help. After the pandemic, the awareness about the vital importance of mental health has been rising. When in need for counselling, we may not have an expert available at hand, but Dr. Julie Smith, a clinical psychologist with over a decade of professional experience, offers the next best alternative in her second book.

Here is a book for the times when we feel overwhelmed – it could be grief, fear, self-doubt, relationship issues, difficult decisions, burnout, regrets… It could be even the time when we don’t know how to ask for help.

The book is divided into three sections devoted to three kinds of perspectives: “When it’s hard to be with other people” is about relationships, “When it’s hard to be with yourself” is of course about dealing with the self, and “When it’s hard to be with your feelings” is about emotion management. A small introduction as well as the beginning of every chapter is a “letter from me to you” in which the author addresses the reader at a personal level, offering comfort and perspective. It is followed by two sections of ‘Real-Time Tools’ and at the end ‘Takeaways’.

The title might be puzzling at first, but the second part of the phrase is in the chapter headings: “When your friends are not your friends”, “When you hate what you’ve become”, “When everything feels pointless” and so on. Then, you open this book.

Dr. Julie Smith, whose previous book ‘Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?’ (with the tagline ‘Everyday tools for Life's Ups and Downs’) was a bestseller, offers simple and straightforward advice for these variety of situations and helps us see clearly how best to respond and act.

Showing us how to reframe life’s complex problems, ‘Open When . . .’ can help us navigate any crisis or tough moment and return to a place of calmness, strength and positivity. Most importantly, the suggestions offered here are not wishy-washy stories but eminently doable, practical – and backed by scientific research.

Self-help books have their limits: they are after all only words – and it is the self that has to do the work of helping, but in times of emotional confusion, they provide a way to make sense of things. Dr Julie Smith’s book is effective in that way and gives the reader a blueprint to find their own way out.