Customer Reviews

Heartwork: How To Get What You Really, REALLY Want

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I've read this book several times now and I am really impressed by it. It doesn't present a "game plan" for "dealing" with your problems like a lot of Self-Help books, well-meaning as they are. It's not about strategy at all, which for me is this mirage of working out all your problems in your head. I've tried that for years! Aha, an epiphany! The answer to my hangups! The book really shows you how living free of sufferings, small and large, requires an incremental body awareness. As Eva Pierrakos puts it: "Through the gateway of feeling your weakness/Lies your strength." Dale Goldstein is a superb guide for feeling your weakness...for finding it! That's difficult in itself, we've erected so many barriers and false fronts and rationalizations. Where in our bodies are we holding those dark feelings we dont want to feel? Those thinking and feeling patterns that keep us sluggish, gaurded, doing "ok"---but not living. HEARTWORKS, more than any other method, has helped me experience my worst feelings (anxiety, shame, loss) in a way that I can emerge on the other side.--Chidsey Dickson

It isn't too often that one reads a book, gets to the end and feels they are ready for a new beginning, but with Dale L. Goldstein's, "Heartwork" I would say not feeling this way is impossible. If it even takes that long. As a reviewer it is my duty to complete a book before forming my opinion of it, even though with this one I felt a new beginning for myself early on.

"Heartwork: How to Get What You Really, Really Want" is a tool for growth. Where "east meets west" by combining eastern meditative processes and western psychotherapeutic practices, Goldstein offers a guide to examining ourselves in a way that we can do this on our own. Letting go of the tension is the first step. With the aid of a wonderful accompanying CD, this becomes a very simply process. Identifying our "problems", those things we shy away from or fight head to head, comes next. Going into that pain, examining it fully and understanding it, is where the healing begins. Our inner conflicts cause our beings to split, creates a separation from wholeness. Fully understanding our conflicts allows us to become whole once again. Goldstein will help readers to get to that point of understanding.

In the section of the book titled Heartwork, readers will be inspired to discover what it is that they really, really want. Thus begins the journey through which readers will follow the tools for inner work in the book and on the accompanying CD. Here, a Soft Body Meditation is experienced, then an exercise called Just Listening. Guided Heartwork comes next and is reportedly much like the process that one can undergo at the Heartwork Institute in Rochester, NY, founded by Goldstein. The work continues with an Awareness Meditation, an Inquiry (an open ended exploration of our experience and who we are), and a Freeze Frame exercise which enables you to examine where you've allowed some dis-ease into your life. The book also shares case files where clients have shared their stories of success using the techniques. This is followed by the story of Goldstein himself, and how he got to where he is now.

The book is absolutely a gorgeous encounter. You will be tempted to flip ahead and fall into artist Richard Wehrman's work, but Goldstein encourages readers to follow the course and not read ahead. He also encourages readers to try to experience the entire book in one weekend, focusing your being on this guidance and fully encountering the results. Now that I am through, I intend to begin again. It is a book to be fully focused on and the starting line for inner growth.

I followed the instructions and did not skip ahead, which was definitely the smart thing to do. I set aside an entire afternoon to read Heartworks and do the exercises. I had a profound experience, I was able to unblock and clear out an old problem that had been festering inside me for 25 years. I feel like a new person. I highly recommend this book along with the cd. $40.00 is nothing compared to a $100.00 an hour therapist. I will continue to use Heartworks to work on myself. Thank you!

I read this book in preparation for a weekend intensive workshop with Dale. When I was in my late teens I was into personal development with a New Age slant, but ran screaming from it after a couple of years and gradually became a somewhat hardened cynic. Now in my late forties, I had begun running up against a serious dead end in some important personal relationships. I gave this book and the workshop a try. At first I was wary of the book because some of the language reminded me of those New Age books I'd read (well-intentioned, but abstract and ultimately not that helpful because the lessons didn't stick, and then I felt guilty for not being "good enough").

However, once I got into the exercises, it really had an effect. Of course, the first effect was grumpiness and anger, as I had to confront some realities about myself that I was not too happy with. However, as I moved through the book, I felt something shifting. It also helped that I see Dale in therapy. There I really was getting some help I had not gotten from other therapists. Opening up is the best way to describe it. The real opening came at the workshop, and I must say my life has been transformed. I have been split wide open, and I like the results: a greater sense of Presence.

Read this book with an open mind, be prepared to feel pain and then a greater awareness of the power of life within you, and if that's working for you and you want more, check out the Heartwork program. The only drawback of the book is that it, by necessity, is based in words (though the artwork that decorates almost every page is stunning), and words can't nearly capture the power of the experience. But they're a good start.

Psychotherapist and teacher Dale Goldstein, LCSW presents Heartwork: How to Get What You Really, Really Want, a blend of western psychological methodologies and eastern meditative techniques designed to help readers work through their most difficult psychological issues. Featuring professionally designed exercises and guided meditations in both the book and an accompanying audio CD, Heartwork offers a means to introspection and enlightenment. Singularly beautiful color photography by Richard Wehrman illustrates this gentle and encouraging transformational guide.

This book describes a way of working with emotional and spiritual blocks that the other has developed over many years. He obviously is an extraordinarily gifted therapist, but I found what he recommends can be used at home with great results. If you are looking for a way to do some inner work by yourself I found you can't do better than this book.

The Author and Teacher shares many tools that are useful in making the changes in our lives that we want to make. He also has included personal stories from students who have done the work themselves...readers are bound to find one or two that resonate personally. The stories helped me see that I am not alone in my quest to transform my life and even though our histories & paths are different we all share many things in common...the stories helped support me while I did the work suggested. Something that I have never found in any other Self Help Book before...I have also been fortunate enough to have attended some of the author's workshops in Austin, TX...there I found seekers that share a common vision.

I have read many self-help books before buying this book...I have found that while most books are good to read, I never really felt like I learned any tools that I could use to actually make the changes I wished to make...this experience left me wanting and frustrated...This book is much different in that Dale teaches actual tools to use to make changes. As a result of being a Student of Dale's I have started my own business and even more gratifying is that I understand myself...understanding brings compassion, kindness & gentleness towards myself and ultimately towards others whom I share my life.

I recommend this book and Mr. Goldstein's workshops to those who really want to change their lives.

Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (9/07)


First of all, before even opening "Heartwork" the reader experiences an inner pull toward the book. The cover is beautiful, inspiring, and sensational. In this case, yes, you can judge the book by its cover because the words and pictures inside are also beautiful, inspiring, and sensational.

Combining various approaches from Western and Eastern philosophies, Goldstein gives a simple and effective process to work through personal issues and concerns one has. Delving into the inner self takes desire and commitment, as well as a course of action. Throughout the book Goldstein outlines this course by providing exercises and guided meditations on the accompanied CD. As well, Goldstein provides life stories from people that experienced transformation through using Heartwork principles. These stories are touching and readers could find themselves in any of the scenarios and relate to their own life experiences, knowing that with a little effort, healing can occur.

Personally I worked the exercises and used the meditations on the CD. I experienced levels of consciousness that I hadn't before. Being a seeker and a student of similar work, it takes specific efforts for me to accomplish what I did through Goldstein's exercises. I'm impressed these exercises were so effective.

That said, I believe because of the simplicity of the exercises in "Heartwork," one doesn't have to have any background in awareness work, but a desire is essential. Goldstein's skills in providing a path for inner work and his knowledge of systems that work makes inner work a simple task. Combining psychology and spirituality does work, when you work it through Heartwork.

Received book free of charge.

Goldstein wrote Heartwork: How to Get What You Really, Really Want to illuminate and explain the Heartwork process. Heartwork is both a
counseling approach and a way of living. A synthesis of Eastern meditative and Western psychotherapeutic techniques, Heartwork works
through the psychological aspects of the mind to access the spiritual dimensions of consciousness.
In the opening pages of the book, Goldstein shares a poem written by a participant in his very first Heartwork workshop (Omega Institute,
1982). The poem describes the process Maribeth Price went through in a near-death experience caused by an automobile accident. For both
Price and Goldstein, the poem conveys the "spirit and transformational power of Heartwork" as a catalyst for psychological and spiritual
healing.
In "The Descent," Price describes what it was like to have to confront the reality of her own death. Surprisingly, in giving up the struggle
against her own mortality she is able to experience an unprecedented sense of unbounded spaciousness. Plunging herself "through fear's
dark sea," she begins to let go of a lifetime of holding. As she "starts to yield," she finds herself "pulsing in rhythmic union/ With all that
once seemed foe/ Feeling with each heartbeat/ Feared enemy becoming friend."
While Price's account describes her conscious reliving of an actual near-death experience, the other testimonials in Goldstein's book
collectively demonstrate that equally profound awakenings can and do take place through the practice of Heartwork, without the physical
body ever being placed in danger. Nestled safely within the structured space of a Goldstein workshop, participants publicly share their
"intention statements" and commit to a shared set of ground rules. Surrounded by others pursuing a similar path of inner-inquiry participants
(or readers of the book) progress through a series of exercises which enable them to plunge, like Price, "through fear's dark sea." As they do
so, they begin to be able to open into and through any demons--fear, pain, addiction, or self-judgment--- they have been running away from
in their lives. ---Kirsche Dickson