The Couch of Willingness - An Alcoholic Therapist Battles the Bottle and a Broken Recovery System by Maureen Palmer

“The tradeoff between recalcitrant humour and boundless tragedy makes this addiction memoir one of a kind.” Marc Lewis, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain After two decades of helping clients battle addiction, Mike Pond, a successful therapist, succumbs to one himself. He loses his practice, his home, and his family to alcoholism, ending up destitute in a down-and-out recovery home. Pond’s harrowing two-year journey to sobriety takes stops in abandoned sheds, dumpsters, ditches, emergency wards, intensive care, and finally, prison. Pond’s riveting account crackles with raw energy and black humour as he plunges readers into a world few will ever have the misfortune to experience. Along the way, he finds himself shamed and stigmatized by the very system in which he used to thrive.