‘Pays tribute to our capacity to remake meaning and identity from experiences’ Times Literary Supplement

A wise, deep, nuanced and profoundly moving book’ Siri Hustvedt

‘Thoughtful, important and a reminder that hope belongs to everyone’ Christie Watson

‘Extraordinarily powerful . . . it’s indelibly stamped on my mind‘ Rachel Clarke

The Sunday Times bestselling authors of The Devil You Know return with a life-affirming book, taking us into the consulting room with Dr Gwen Adshead to witness her work with patients and discover how we heal after trauma. Unspeakable is a testament to human resilience and the power of therapy.

The pioneering psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr Gwen Adshead works with patients struggling in the wake of a range of distressing and painful life events. Drawn from over thirty years of clinical practice, Unspeakable illuminates how language – and silence – can dramatically affect the quality of our recovery after disaster. Whether we’re suffering from a sudden bereavement or intergenerational trauma, assault or abuse, sometimes the hardest words to say out loud are the very ones to set us free. With Adshead’s assistance and extraordinary insight, these courageous people discover new ways of viewing their experiences and moving forward in their lives.

In a world of quick fixes, immediate heated responses and lazily applied labels, Unspeakable urges nuance, expertise and compassion. It charts the transformation of patient identities, hearts and minds through the power of language, and makes a compelling case for hope.