Frances Bennett

The Shining Place Frances Bennett

In the 1960's Frances grows up in the remote desert town of Thermal, CA. Most nights her father gets drunk and beats her mother. The child feels her joy slip away. To survive she knows she must hold on to the truth and remember what happened. Decades later in psychotherapy, Frances revisits her childhood and becomes trapped in a memory world of little girls with big demands and a lot to say. "The Shining Place" is a magical story of recovery told by the girls, and an account of their therapy endured and paid for by the adult client. "The Shining Place" is a combined memoir and an account of psychotherapy, adapted from journals written over a ten year period. It addresses issues of transference, distrust, dissociation, and rupture in the therapeutic alliance. It's a fast read on an abusive childhood and the complexities of psychotherapy.