Non-Fiction/Self Help Review

Heartwork: How To Get What You Really, REALLY Want
by Dale L. Goldstein, illustrated by Richard Wehrman
ISBN-10: 0978960610
Review by Heather Froeschl

It isn’t too often that one reads a book, gets to the end and feels they are ready for a new beginning, but with Dale L. Goldstein’s, “Heartwork” I would say not feeling this way is impossible. If it even takes that long. As a reviewer it is my duty to complete a book before forming my opinion of it, even though with this one I felt a new beginning for myself early on.

“Heartwork: How to Get What You Really, Really Want” is a tool for growth. Where “east meets west” by combining eastern meditative processes and western psychotherapeutic practices, Goldstein offers a guide to examining ourselves in a way that we can do this on our own. Letting go of the tension is the first step. With the aid of a wonderful accompanying CD, this becomes a very simply process. Identifying our “problems”, those things we shy away from or fight head to head, comes next. Going into that pain, examining it fully and understanding it, is where the healing begins. Our inner conflicts cause our beings to split, creates a separation from wholeness. Fully understanding our conflicts allows us to become whole once again. Goldstein will help readers to get to that point of understanding.

In the section of the book titled Heartwork, readers will be inspired to discover what it is that they really, really want. Thus begins the journey through which readers will follow the tools for inner work in the book and on the accompanying CD. Here, a Soft Body Meditation is experienced, then an exercise called Just Listening. Guided Heartwork comes next and is reportedly much like the process that one can undergo at the Heartwork Institute in Rochester, NY, founded by Goldstein. The work continues with an Awareness Meditation, an Inquiry (an open ended exploration of our experience and who we are), and a Freeze Frame exercise which enables you to examine where you’ve allowed some dis-ease into your life. The book also shares case files where clients have shared their stories of success using the techniques. This is followed by the story of Goldstein himself, and how he got to where he is now.

The book is absolutely a gorgeous encounter. You will be tempted to flip ahead and fall into artist Richard Wehrman’s work, but Goldstein encourages readers to follow the course and not read ahead. He also encourages readers to try to experience the entire book in one weekend, focusing your being on this guidance and fully encountering the results. Now that I am through, I intend to begin again. It is a book to be fully focused on and the starting line for inner growth.