I am a counselor myself, trained in Family Therapy. This is not the first book of Lowen's that I had read, but when I read it, I realized that I must practice from Lowen's point of view. Most depressed people (and I have been one) are told that their depression is a mental mistake and that they need to 'think better' to feel better. But as Lowen shows, thinking is not the problem. Sure, cognitive distortions arise, but they are the mind's best effort to understand very painful feelings that are real and that also are reflected in the state of the body. When a therapist identifies cognitive distortions as the origin of the problem, the depressed person just starts hiding them, because the 'distortions' are compelling, because they do 'make sense' as far as sensation goes.Lowen's bio-energetic therapy has benefitted me enormously. It is not for dabblers. Lowen's approach to feeling better makes cognitive and family therapy appear very superficial indeed. Lowen does indeed talk about trends in society, but they are very relevant to depression, because depression is not random, it is the consequence of a state of living which is starved for real pleasure and satisfaction. Both some social and some family trends foist a joyless state of living onto children that carried forward, leads to a major depression.The fix is not an instant or quick one. It is however, a surprisingly commonsense one-- getting back to the wisdom of sensation and emotion (with body work), protecting one's integrity with legitimate anger, and respecting the role that simple pleasures and satisfactions play in health.