Intimacy and Solitude Finding New Closeness and Self-Trust in a Distanced World

Social distancing under COVID has thrown us more deeply into our intimate relationships and kept us achingly apart from family, friends, and others. Stephanie Dowrick's classic Intimacy and Solitude is the wise guide we need to help us find our personal ground, whatever challenges we face.

The quality of your personal relationships has never mattered more. It isn't enough to have lots of friends on social media. Or to give "everything" to work hoping that will validate your existence. When familiar certainties are dissolving, we need to give and receive closeness and understanding to feel fully alive. But how do we open to others in a world that can seem harsh, indifferent—and unpredictable in the extreme? Intimacy and Solitude starts with the most fundamental relationship of all: how you understand and care for your own self—knowing this will inevitably be reflected in your most essential relationships. Using her exceptional gifts as a storyteller, as well as decades of work with people of all ages, orientations, and cultures, Dr. Stephanie Dowrick brings to life profound and persuasive insights to transform self-trust—and your life with others. This edition includes a new introduction to bring the book up to date.

Stephanie Dowrick, PhD, is Australia's most successful personal development writer. She has supported many thousands of people as a therapist, interfaith minister, public speaker, and author. Her much-loved books include Choosing Happiness, Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love, and Seeking the Sacred. Her continuing contributions to media and social media include a decade as 'Inner Life' columnist for Good Weekend.