The Relationship Handbook

October 20, 2014
Self-help workshop leader Gawain (Creative Visualization) and her writing partner, Vucci, distill years of experienceinto an accessible reference book containing tools that students can turn to again and again. The title might suggest a narrow focus on romance, but Gawain covers many types of relationships, including the interactions among a person’s different emotional selves. Personal stories address issues that couples may face, such as when an extroverted woman is married to an introverted man. Accompanying exercises—visualizations and writing prompts—suggest ways to explore similar issues in one’s own relationships. Dialogues demonstrate the power of relationships as a mirror, a source of feedback that helps growth. These conversations are intended to replicate the workshop experience, though the transcripts lack the immediacy of watching a facilitator work with a person at a live event. Gawain’s most powerful techniques, like physically repositioning the speaker depending on the inner voice being expressed, lose some impact in print. Though Gawain wrote this book with the intention of retiring from leading workshops, it acts as more of an adjunct to her other teachings than a true replacement.