Title: Nachas Ruach: Torah-based
Psychotherapy and Tools for
Growth & Healing
Author: Dr. Naftali Fish
Publisher: Targum Press
Nachas Ruach: Torah-based Psychotherapy and Tools for Growth & Healing is Dr. Naftali Fish’s 309-page explanation of a treatment model utilizing Torah values for emotional and mental health. As noted on page 5, the Nachas Ruach Treatment Model tool is ” validated by changing trends within the field of psychotherapy increased openness and motivation to discover or to develop alternative ways to understanding the nature of health and healing “
NRTM builds on the belief that every Jew and person is created in the Divine image and has intrinsic value beyond their achievements. That’s a big improvement over the fatalistic atheism that once ruled psychotherapy.
Succeeding chapters in Nachas Ruach address the Freud’s error that the conscious mind can’t access the Id/yetzer hara; Torah wisdom teaches that blind spots are one thing, teshuva another.
The book also examines selective memory, positive peer pressure and integrating pleasure principles with kedusha. The author quotes Bradshaw, Maslow, Carl Rogers, the 12 Steps Program and other icons of the mental health profession in his book as much as he references tzadikim and Torah sources. He synthesizes them into a cohesive method for advancing mental/emotional health.
The psychological needs of wounded baalei teshuva, Orthodox Jews misguided from birth or in the educational system, and other members of the Jewish world appear in case histories throughout the book. Fish lectures in Israel’s Touro College and elsewhere. Read his book and listen to his words to gain more perspective on how to promote more mental health in the Jewish world.
Client recommendations in Appendix 2 of Nachas Ruach: Torah-based Psychotherapy and Tools for Growth & Healing explain the benefits of doing so. Somewhat dry reading for people who aren’t mental health professionals, Nachas Ruach: Torah-based Psychotherapy and Tools for Growth & Healing can be best serve as a textbook for credentialed practitioners and their students.
Yocheved Golani is the author of paperback and E-book “It’s MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry If I Need To: EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge” (www.booklocker.com/books/4244.html).
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