Home Is Where The Start Is by Richard Hogan

Families are complicated, even the ’normal’ ones.

Our early years at home are when we lay down the blueprint for being a partner, parent, sibling, friend, colleague, neighbour, and even a citizen. Home is where we become who we are.

Even the best of childhoods is imperfect. And if there were difficulties - whether due to simple personality clashes, or issues such as authoritarian parenting, family break-up, illness, loss or addiction - it may be an ongoing struggle to manage our moods and emotions, though we may have no idea why. Psychotherapist Richard Hogan has seen it all when it comes to how the early years shape us - and he knows we can work on ourselves to rewrite the blueprint. In this book he draws on extensive research and thousands of conversations in the therapy room to explain how.

Packed full of eye-opening and liberating ideas, fascinating case studies and practical tools, Home is Where the Start Is also includes a remarkable account of Richard’s own challenges as a child and teenager. He knows exactly what it’s like to face the past squarely, grapple with the legacy of childhood unhappiness and work on creating a better future.

Home is Where the Start Is will help you become the best version of yourself you can be. And it is an invaluable source of advice for parents to give your child the best possible start.

Richard Hogan is a psychotherapist who specializes in working with families. He was drawn to this work arising from classroom experiences when working as a secondary school teacher. He has been in practice for a decade and is clinical director of the Therapy Institute in Dublin. Richard is the recipient of a Fulbright Award and is completing a PhD exploring the intersection between psychological models of the family and educational theory, with a particular focus on inclusion. He writes a weekly Irish Examiner column about the mental health issues of teenagers, couples and families and makes frequent TV and radio appearances, including as a regular contributor to Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 and as the series psychologist on the Virgin Media One show Eating with the Enemy. His first book was Parenting the Screenager. Richard lives in Dublin with his family.