NO SPOILERS in our conversation with Reese Witherspoon Book Club author Christie Tate discussing her refreshingly original debut memoir, Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life.

We begin by talking about how Christie, having just been named the top student in her law school class, found herself in a deep depression with suicidal thoughts and turned to group therapy to change her life.

** We ask Christie whether you can be a person who has secrets and doesn’t want to burden others with your problems, but also be vulnerable and intimate in your relationships?  We loved hearing her explain how finding a witness and a way to place your burdens on another is a way of forming trust and intimacy. (04:48)

** Christie reminds us that the road to recovery is not linear and we need to make space for back steps, to see them as just another step along the path. (09:34)

** In group therapy, Christie’s goal is to find romantic love, to score her smooth, unattached heart. But can you be a complicated woman and still yearn for and need the love of a romantic partner? We doubt you’ll dub her a “bad feminist” after reading Group and listening to her response. (12:20)

** When women write memoir, critics call them “brave”... we ask Christie whether she thinks the term is condescending or whether it is just a fact that writing your pure truth for all the world is actually an act of courage? Her thoughtful response about how she has come full circle on this question and how context matters has us reeling. (19:29)

** Let’s play a game! Christie asks us to share which famous people we would each want in our own ideal group therapy session. We had so much fun with this exercise! Christie even made us our own personal Pop Fiction Women group made up of fictional characters! (24:10)

** Three over-achieving lawyers (Christie, Carinn and Kate) discuss the mask of perfectionism, aka we engage in group therapy. (35:32)

** Of course we discuss astrology, but this time Christie actually let Carinn run her birth chart. We knew she was a Cancer, but her chart was full of additional surprises! She is super fiery even among two fire signs! (37:24)

** Speaking of things destined in the stars, Carinn and Christie share what they recall about how they met and how their friendship has grown over the years. It all began with a blog post about motherhood and Chilean miners. Whaaaat? (41:00)

** We return to a favorite theme of fate vs free will and Christie shares how the vision for Group just popped into her head while trying to write fiction and how the universe intervened in helping her on her road to publication. (45:40)

** Christie shares what she is loving right now in books, TV, movies and music. (50:56)

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