I will say right off that I was conflicted on how to review Healing is a Choice by Stephen Arterburn. I was very familiar with the original book. It set me straight on so many destructive beliefs that many people, especially Christians, offer as "wisdom" to help the hurting. Overall, it is an excellent book. I do have to say I grew a little tired of him using his divorce for so many of the illustrations of his points and that the occasional bible verse was, at least in my opinion, taken out of context. But the vast majority of the content is so incredible and needs to be said so badly, that those flaws are easily overlooked. I have bought several copies of the original book to give away to people who I thought needed to read it. I highly recommend it.
So, when I was given the opportunity to review the updated version which includes a full workbook, I was excited to see what this new resource would provide and to see if it would give any deeper meaning to the material. Unfortunately, while the book is still excellent, the included workbook is just okay. I will say, one of my talents as a writer is writing study guides/questions for books, so I do judge things such as studies and workbooks very harshly. But even taking that into account, I didn't really feel the workbook portions added much at all. In fact, because they are integrated into the body of the book, I found it a little distracting. Perhaps if I was new to counseling, self-reflection or Christianity, these questions would have been more appropriate, but for a fairly seasoned, but screwed up Christian, I found myself answering very few of the questions.
So my recommendation...if you have the original book without the workbook, you probably don't need to buy this one unless you really want something you can go through with a support group or something similar. But even for that use, the questions would need some supplementation or direction. If you don't have the original book, then by all means, I highly recommend this title, whether you go with this version or one without the workbook.
I received a free copy of this book from booksneeze.com in exchange for my honest review.
So, when I was given the opportunity to review the updated version which includes a full workbook, I was excited to see what this new resource would provide and to see if it would give any deeper meaning to the material. Unfortunately, while the book is still excellent, the included workbook is just okay. I will say, one of my talents as a writer is writing study guides/questions for books, so I do judge things such as studies and workbooks very harshly. But even taking that into account, I didn't really feel the workbook portions added much at all. In fact, because they are integrated into the body of the book, I found it a little distracting. Perhaps if I was new to counseling, self-reflection or Christianity, these questions would have been more appropriate, but for a fairly seasoned, but screwed up Christian, I found myself answering very few of the questions.
So my recommendation...if you have the original book without the workbook, you probably don't need to buy this one unless you really want something you can go through with a support group or something similar. But even for that use, the questions would need some supplementation or direction. If you don't have the original book, then by all means, I highly recommend this title, whether you go with this version or one without the workbook.
I received a free copy of this book from booksneeze.com in exchange for my honest review.
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