I found the situations the women experienced and the reason they were attending counselling really interesting to read as it makes you think about possible situations in your own life and how your upbringing can shape you as an adult. I however did find the writings from the counsellor a bit hard to follow at times as I lost interest.

This is not my usual sort of book but every now and then I like to step out of my comfort zone and step into the real world.. I am not always comfortable in listening to the true lives of people, however I do think this book was done tastefully.
The author is a leading psychologist and she has recalled the journey of seven of her patients. It is an intimate look at the lives of these women. They are all on very different journeys, related through hours of conversations.The book flows well and there is great empathy throughout.
This book can be read on many levels.. I was more fascinated by the journey rather than the path the women took.
Whether I understand or agree on the method is irrelevant, as it opens up the question of women's needs and desires. I know this book would be a lovely gift for many of my friends.

I requested this book as I was pulled in by the eye catching front cover design and the title of the book. Finally a chance to get an insight into what other women want! I was also hoping that the book would be written in a way that it would be meaningful to buy copies for my male friends so they could understand the needs of women and what we are really looking for.

The book is well written, and shares stories of seven different women who all have been in psychotherapy with Maxine Mei-Fung Chung for shorter or longer times. It gives a good description of the interaction between the women seeking help and the professional and how the sessions help them to develop as persons, and in some cases reclaim their own personalities. There is plenty of detail and I liked how Maxine Mei-Fung Chung guides the clients through the sessions with tender probing and open questions.

It was not at all what I expected; perhaps I read the synopsis too quickly and misunderstood the content.

Still, it was an enlightening and empowering read.

"What Women Want" is basically comprised of seven case histories of women in therapy. They are based on the actual case histories of clients of the writer (with the clients permission) but semi fictionalised. I think the title of the book "What Women Want" is a lure as after reading the sad stories I was none the wiser as to what "women" (rather the individuals in question) want.
In the first case study, Terri is about to get married to an older bloke who she really likes but for several years has been going out to bars, getting drunk and picking up women. She has been in therapy for years as her mental state and anxiety gets worse but doesn't realise she is gay and Maxine (the therapist) gently questions Terri about her actions to help her discover her truth. At the end of each case study the writer reflects on the client and their story and her part in helping them and how the story resonates with her own life and family dynamic. It all felt very American quite Hallmark (although I think the writer/therapist is based in London).

The other case studies follow women in a variety of situations such as one who has abandonment issues after being sent to boarding school whilst her brother was taken to Asia with their parents, another who has deep grief from her son's addiction issues and suicide, a woman who has experienced life long racial trauma, a woman who was abused as a child and has an eating disorder. Some of the stories were very sad and some women are still in therapy.

It was interesting but I found the case se histories and reflections a bit long winded and the author often veered into "purple prose."

This beautifully written and wonderfully warm book uses a set of interactions from Maxine Mei-Fung Chung's psychotherapy practice to investigate the importance of desire in women, and how the deep recognition of women's wants and needs can be healing. The presentation of each of the stories was discussed and negotiated with the women concerned so that their identities are shielded without significant content being lost. The stories are well presented, and painfully honest, they give us a window into these therapeutic encounters and demonstrate Maxine's deep skills as a therapist and her, very natural, struggles with some of the cases she deals with which trigger something of her own journey.
Terri is about to be married to a man, but is having secret sexual encounters with women, what does she really want? Kitty was sent to boarding school whilst her brother went to Asia with their parents, the rejection echoes in her still. Subtle hidden abuse from Ruth's stepfather triggered her eating disorder, she's still working on it.
Beverly lost her son to addiction and suicide, how can she come to terms with her deep grief? Tia has experienced, and continues to experience racial trauma and rejection, over time she finds healing and learns to love her body, At various points Maxine gives us a fascinating glimpse into her own personal history and challenging family relationships.
I would recommend this book to all women, particularly those who are considering entering into a psychotherapeutic relationship who wonder what it would be like, and those who are learning how to be therapists and counsellors who can learn a lot from Maxine's wisdom and ways of approaching therapy.

I'm not sure I'm any wiser about what women want after reading the book, but there were some interesting aspects to each of the individual stories.
I think I went into this expecting something different and perhaps an understanding or insight at the end but I didn’t feel like that happened for me. Some of the individual stories were very sad and I felt for women but overall, this didn’t hit the mark for me.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the stories of the women were all different enough to be interesting, but similar enough to see common threads. I felt the author did an excellent job at describing body language and how this conveys our thoughts and feelings.

I would recommend this book to therapists as the author explores her own bias and connections to the women, and how she must work to overcome this.

The writing felt clunky and was difficult to get over. A couple of the stories I really enjoyed but overall, sadly, this si not a book I would go back to. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.

unfortunately, the book didn't live up to my expectations and I thought it would be more thought provoking and interesting than it really was. I didn't connect with any of the stories nor with the writing style.

What an inspiration reading this book has been. Unpicking feelings over time with life crushing events have taken or are taking place.
How the art of a good physiotherapist help's you to grow and heal hurts.

Through the profound and moving stories of seven very different women, Maxine Mei-Fung Chung has been a psychotherapist for many years and in this collection we follow the stories of seven different women who've come from a very different range of backgrounds and had a very different range of hardships and issues in their lives.

Their stories shed light on why we might behave as we do and how we can come to terms with, and address, struggles that we've had in our lives.

I thought this was a really interesting and thought-provoking book - I would definitely recommend it. .

I thought this would be a great opportunity to dive deep in what Women Want and take notes or points here, learn and challenge yourself with what we are as women. I had much higher expectations obviously.
I really struggled to read this book and my biggest struggle was simply how it was written. I often could not figure out where the authors dialog begins and her clients thoughts start or even their personal thoughts. It was a mess really and feel that extra work is required. I have read lots of books in this field and sadly couldn't connect with this even a little bit.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for this opportunity to read, I hope tou can appreciate my honest feedback on this.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed in this book - while the prose is high quality, the overall premise of this genre is handled better, I feel, by Philippa Perry. There also wasn’t enough explicit consideration of the ethics of using people’s stories in this way, which led to some uncomfortable reading.