There’s no shortage of psychology self-help books on depression—but this collection, envisioned and edited by Sounds True founder Tami Simon, is not one of them.

You won’t be revisiting familiar therapies or antidepressant options. What you will find is a gathering of 16 exceptional and compassionate teachers who have faced profound depression themselves. Their purpose? To radically shift the way that we perceive the experience. To offer insights and practices that reach beyond conventional models. And to help us receive depression’s uninvited yet singular gifts. 

The guidance presented here supports traditional psychotherapy and medication as valuable tools. But for those who’ve found these approaches incomplete—or seek to help others at an impasse—there’s much to discover within these pages, including:

Thomas Moore, PhD, on Saturn’s gifts; Sally Kempton on shifting from suffering and into witnessing awareness; poet Mark Nepo on embracing both emptiness and aliveness; Mary Pipher, PhD, on how despair can open us to long-hidden joy; Christina Baldwin on “ineffable sorrow”; Parker J. Palmer, PhD, on finding meaning and connection through the experience of depression; plus exceptional contributions by Ann Marie Chiasson, MD; James Gordon, MD; Sandra Ingerman; Karla McLaren; Robert Augustus Masters, PhD; Amy Weintraub; Jeff Foster; Elizabeth Rabia Roberts, EdD; Michael Bernard Beckwith; and Reginald A. Ray, PhD.