Matt McAvoy Book Review

A qualified clinical counsellor and practicing hypnotherapist, Deborah McKenna is more than qualified to present the resources in this book, which she does with cheer and personality.  However, I do feel that perhaps readers should be advised before going in that it is very faith-heavy – both faith in yourself and positive thinking overall, and of course faith in God.  The “clutter” she refers to primarily bases this book on two premises: first, identifying and discarding repressed negative feelings of the past, and second, putting a positive spin on events and decisions in life now and going forward, without regaining or amassing any more negative “clutter”.  In this respect then, you could argue that this self-help book is part psychoanalytical and part cognitive, but the methods she puts forward are practical, resourceful, varied and extremely useful – it is at these parts (perhaps in the latter third) that The Cluttered Mind is at its best.  The tools and exercises are shared in abundance, making this hugely worthwhile coffee-table book, while Deborah also goes on to evidence her methods with examples of events in her own life and some of her clients’.  This perhaps for me then is the reason it feels somewhat undermined by the emphasis on God, which increases as it proceeds.  This is no real surprise; self-help books by U.S. authors are wont to do this, but for an atheist reader it will add little to the book.  In fact, I would even go as far as to say that readers of faith will invariably take more benefit than those who aren’t.

But, I’ve no wish to portray it inaccurately, and I certainly don’t mean to undermine the credit it deserves; Deborah is a professional and this is a professional reference book.  It is well written, with a genuine sense of fun and light-heartedness, and the author is endearing, putting a lot of her own character into the work, without the stuffy airs and graces of academia she is rightfully qualified to present – and I like this about her.