After the Work Works

Why Healing Doesn’t Always Tell Us How to Live

In treatment, the departure is abrupt.

One Wednesday afternoon, you’re stabbing dry chicken and flavorless pasta with your plastic fork, gathering your most recent journal prompts and shuffling down the hall to your therapist’s office. Sixty minutes later, you’re sitting wide-eyed on the edge of a loveseat as the outpatient coordinator informs you that, …