Emotional Fitness: Discovering Our Natural Healing Power

Diana Coholic is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at
Laurentian University.

Emotional Fitness discusses the powerful links between our emotional
health and our ability to fully experience emotions, and how many people
become blocked from knowing and expressing their feelings. The author
argues that feeling and expressing emotions is a natural process that
people can learn to tap into. Her accessible, reader-friendly book
includes brief case examples that can help us to understand and sort out
our past experiences so as to minimize any adverse effects they might
have on our present-day lives. Berger focuses special attention on the
impact of unmet needs and feelings of shame, guilt, worthlessness,
anger, grief, and anxiety. She explains how such feelings shape
relationships between life partners, co-workers, and parents and
children, among others. In my role as a psychotherapist and social
worker, I loaned this book to three of my clients and all of them found
it helpful. I highly recommend Emotional Fitness to helping/health
practitioners, educators, students, and anyone interested in exploring
the connections between self-awareness and mental health.