Karen R. Koenig

Karen R. Koenig, MEd, LCSW, is an expert on eating psychology—the how and why, not the what of eating. She is a psychotherapist, educator, blogger, and eight-book, international, award-winning author.

Her books are for lay and professional audiences and include The Rules of “Normal” EatingThe Food and Feelings Workbook, Outsmarting OvereatingStarting MondayNice Girls Finish FatWhat Every Therapist Needs to Know about Treating Eating and Weight IssuesHelping Patients Outsmart Overeating, and Words to Eat By

She has been published in The Boston GlobeThe Boston HeraldSarasota Herald-TribuneSocial Work Today, Social Work FocusEating Disorders Today, The Newsletter for the Society for Family Therapy and Research, has been interviewed on SNN, ABC, and Fox TV, and has been quoted in Ladies Home JournalWall St. Journal, Washington Post, In TouchSelfBerner ZeitungWomen’s Health, Shape, Weight Watchers, and HuffPost Online.

She has been a workshop instructor at Simmons College School of Social Work, Boston University School of Social Work, and the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology Professional educational programs.

She lives and practices in Sarasota, Florida.  

Book Reviews by Karen R. Koenig

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“Charlotte Markey, PhD, speaks to those who let dissatisfaction with their bodies gnaw away at their happiness and prevent them from living their best lives.”

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Maher’s goal is to open our eyes, expand our minds, and move us past identity politics and toward making wiser choices for our country and world.

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“Adam Gopnik’s reflections teach us how to free ourselves from the chains of expectations and let happiness find us.”

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“As interesting and enlightening as Sociopath is, there’s something disquieting about it.”

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“a fascinating, esoteric treatise on gaslighting, which includes not only what this psychological tactic involves, but what it doesn’t, on both the micro and macro levels.”

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“Although the ideas in this book aren’t new, they bear repeating if readers are ever going to discard the no-pain-no-gain, just-do-it thinking that permeates our culture.”

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“evidence-based practices and real world examples of women with ADHD succeeding, not in spite of having ADHD, but perhaps because of it.”

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“Together Vance and Smith debunk the myths that ‘therapy is only for white folks’ and ‘prayer is enough.’”

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“This book is a compelling plea for earth’s inhabitants to put on their science hats and come together to make a better life for everyone.”

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“The author’s goal is . . . to produce deep-seated, culture-wide transformation so that the judicial and community response is to the actual, not presumed, needs of survivors.”

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“Evette Dionne spares readers none of the agony she suffers being a large woman in a small-minded world . . .”

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“a user friendly, practical guide that explains how to attain and maintain resilience by developing a learnable set of life skills that, with practice, become part of who we are and help us

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McInerny’s greatest gift is knowing the exact ingredients that make learning about oneself seem so effortless and hopeful.”

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“This is a book whose purpose is to provoke curiosity and enlighten.”

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“There isn’t a marriage or romantic partnership out there that won’t benefit from this book.”

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“Beck’s infusion of religion into this book is both its strength and weakness.”

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“This life-altering book stands head and shoulders above the countless how-to guides aiming to teach couples how to repair broken relationships.”

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Bittersweet grants us permission to explore and experience sorrow and longing by transforming them into acceptable, inspiring, even hopeful emoti

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“For the just curious about how a law gets passed or those itching to make it happen, this guide has all the answers.”

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The Anatomy of Anxiety describes myriad stresses that drive up our anxiety and provides a framework for figuring out how we can beat or benefit from it.”

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“Whether you’re looking to make major or minor changes in your life, this book will help you leave the starting gate with positive expectations of success.”

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Emotional Inheritance explodes the myth that what we don’t know can’t hurt us, at least when it comes to family legacies.”

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“This book provides more long-term help than any diet or weight-loss book can because it tackles our problem with food at the macro/micro and conscious/unconscious levels.”

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For this country to heal from its inarguably traumatic past, it is crucial to experience its pain: to feel anguish, sadness, and rage along with facing a recognition of be

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“a book that is erudite, practical, reader-friendly, deeply personal, and sure to help even the most anxious among us.”

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“provides both practical and clinical advice with an emphasis on improving Black Women’s emotional and physical health through trauma resolution, exercise, mindfulness, support systems, sel

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“Readers seeking a sterile understanding of profanity with all the lewdness and bawdiness sanitized away and air-brushed out will likely find Nasty Words beyond their comfort zone.

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“‘Achieving lasting personality change means shaking things up, unlearning some of your many habits and routines that contribute to the kind of person you are, and overwriting them with new

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“Hunter spares no details about any aspect of his life, so that we feel his cautious optimism when he enters yet another rehab or recovery program and crash with him when he inevitably begi

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“The chapters on spite and freedom, politics and what is sacred to us are an insightful, relevant, and welcome commentary on what to make of our current hate-filled political climate.”

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“The aim of Useful Delusions, a very readable book, is to teach us to be more rational about our irrationality, to not make the latter our enemy, but to recognize how it may help a

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“The author knows that ‘to erase stigma, all of us—those in the medical community as well as laypeople—need to be less judgmental about mental illness in ourselves and in others and learn t

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In this time of major social upheaval, Change is a welcome addition to the many books written about macro-level transformation.

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“As a welcome surprise, Seven and a Half Lessons is part self-help book on how to manage our own quirky brains and part manifesto on how to move forward to heal this country’s poli

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“Hats off to Gildiner for doing a heroic therapeutic job and for writing about it so eloquently.”

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“The fact that the book is about so many other aspects of life beyond eating underscores the author’s premise that EDs are about so much more than food and size.”

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“Apolitical at the time, Wolkoff now acknowledges that ignoring what bad politics does to real people is one of the things that sucked her down the rabbit hole.”

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“Churchland’s take on conscience is likely messier than most of us will find comfort in, yearning as we do for moral clarity and certainty in order to make our decisions easier and put our

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“This book is about what makes us vote as we do and keep coming back to this cultural ritual rain or shine, hell or high water.”

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“. . . this book is a remarkably compassionate story of emotional family horror from which neither uncle nor niece could easily escape.”

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“although we glorify the benefits of transformation, most of us, to our detriment, have barely scraped the surface of what holds us back.”

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“Whether or not you believe the case made by Mercier that we are not easily hoodwinked, the idea that in today’s world we humans are uniquely equipped to ferret out lies and cons is oddly r

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“As always, Cornwell establishes time, place and mood by expertly crafting each scene to make you feel as if you’re in it.”

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“Although its parts are fine, their sum does not quite add up to what we expect in a book by Gladwell.”

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“you cannot be wise about the world around you if you cannot first know yourself.’

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“Clinicians who already use the book’s cutting-edge memory reconsolidation approach will deepen their knowledge of its principles and find myriad practices and applications to make certain

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"Mary Pipher dives in and upends the myths of female aging by detailing both the joyous and depressing truths of our sunset years."

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“Emotions are not positive or negative but must be used appropriately in situations—through neither under- nor overuse—to be effective.”

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“If the first mountain is about energy flowing from community to individual, the second is about energy moving from individual to community.”

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“Lori Gottlieb takes you not only inside the head of a therapist but welcomes you into her heart as well.”

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“If you’re looking for a read that spotlights exactly how to take control of your life, this book provides a tidy amalgamation of theory and practice that’ll get you up and running with the

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“The inspiring story of Tomlinson transforming his relationship with food may break your heart before it eventually lifts it.”

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“Greene rightly reminds us that in order to understand others we must first and foremost understand what makes ourselves tick.”

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“Sobering and frightening as his analysis of the president is, it is also a call to arms.”

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“Although this book might be painful to read for gaslighting victims and survivors, it will bring them out of the darkness and into the light, helping them heal . . .”

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Kara Richardson Whitely’s double-entendre of a title, The Weight of Being, wonderfully captures her physical and emotional life as a person of higher weight.