This week I talked with psychotherapist and life counselor Larry Robinson about his new book, Mirror, Mirror: Reflections of Self: 365-Day Life Journal. Robinson's book evolved from 35 years of counseling both gay and straight clients, and from his Facebook page "Mindful Thinking," which has over 165,000 followers globally. The emotional growth that can be achieved through this book is truly unique and a fabulous way to start 2015. Mirror, Mirror is not a self-help book but a help-yourself book. After each of the 365 lessons, readers will find a question to answer, and space is provided for their answer. You can work on these lessons alone or with a partner. Readers can then return to it any time and check their progress, and each time they go through its pages, they will discover something new about themselves.
I talked to Robinson about his inspiration for writing Mirror, Mirror, and about his spin on LGBT issues. When asked about his involvement with the LGBT community, he stated:
My involvement goes back at least 40 years, as my first volunteer job was at a place called the Homosexual Health Center, on Boylston Street in Boston, where we did volunteer counseling with gay and lesbian men and women. It was operating for about five years, and then it shut down, and that's when I decided basically to go into my own business. Probably it was 1981 that I did some volunteer work for the AIDS Action Committee, and I got my first AIDS patient, and it wasn't even identified as AIDS then in '81; it was called "gay cancer." Unfortunately so few people were out at that time. My client was diagnosed with whatever they believed it was, and he died about three weeks later; it was very quick. From there I worked with many gay men who were infected with the AIDS virus, who were all HIV-positive, and unfortunately they all died. I think my job, basically, at that point, wasn't about how to live; it was more about how to die, because the death rate was so enormous at that time. So my hand has always been involved in the community, and I think I'll always be involved. I work now with gay couples, singles. I think it's part of my life to help people feel better about who they are.
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Larry Robinson has a Master of Education in counseling from Boston University, is a clinically certified forensic counselor working with the Essex County district attorney's office in the Juvenile Diversion Program, and is a certified divorce mediator. He is the founder of Mindful Thinking, which focuses on change and living in the now. His new book, Mirror, Mirror: Reflections of Self, published by Xlibris, was written with this in mind, and with the intention of helping people across the world change and better their lives.
For more information, visit the "Mindful Thinking" Facebook page.
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