Shrinks
Tales of Transition
by Bill Koch

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Psychologists are trained to help others survive grief, trauma, and despair. But what happens when the healers find themselves lost in their own lives? Spanning three decades in Vancouver—from 1981 to 2010—this collection of stories follows three psychologists, David, Ebba, and Ben, as they navigate the delicate line between professional roles and personal upheaval. Bound by friendship and a shared vocation, they guide patients through grief, trauma, obsession, depression, and fear while their lives beyond the consulting room grow increasingly turbulent: • David anchors his family during his fight to maintain a fragile marriage. • Ebba navigates motherhood and divorce, wrestling with a longing that reshapes her understanding of love and loyalty. • When his wife leaves him, Ben confronts the same crushing depression he has spent his career treating in others. Interwoven with their journeys are the unfolding deeply human dramas of their patients’ lives: Debbie’s crippling guilt, Thelma’s incandescent grief, Darvesh’s disabling compulsions, and Sunny’s battle to reclaim her life. Drawing on decades of professional insight, Shrinks: Tales of Transition explores the paradox at the heart of therapy: those who help others heal must eventually confront their own wounds. For fans of Koch’s novel Hired Gun, this collection also offers a window into the early career of David Lipman. As the years pass and the stories unfold, David, Ebba, and Ben must tackle the question that echoes through every consulting room: how does one face suffering and still choose hope?

www.billkochwrites.com

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Bill Koch is a writer and retired psychologist whose fiction draws on more than four decades of clinical experience studying and treating mental illness. Over the course of his career, he conducted research in anxiety disorders and trauma, worked as a highly credentialed cognitive behaviour therapist, and provided forensic psychological assessments for the courts concerning the consequences of trauma. He also investigated and adjudicated ethical violations for the College of Psychologists of British Columbia and assessed health professionals for their fitness to practise. As a clinical professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, he taught and supervised future clinicians and is now clinical professor emeritus. Bill is the author of the academic text Psychological Injuries: Forensic Assessment, Treatment, and Law (Oxford University Press, 2006). His fiction has appeared in emerge 21: The Writer’s Studio Anthology, and his work has received several awards from the North Shore Writers Association. His novel Hired Gun introduced the character of psychologist David Lipman, whose earlier career is explored in Shrinks: Tales of Transition. He lives in West Vancouver, British Columbia, overlooking English Bay, with his wife of many years and two high-maintenance cats.

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Contributors

Author

Bill Koch