Coming Soon
Psychologists are trained to help others survive grief, trauma, and despair. But what happens when the healers find themselves lost in their own lives?
Spanning three decades in Vancouver—from 1981 to 2010—this collection of stories follows three psychologists, David, Ebba, and Ben, as they navigate the delicate line between professional roles and personal upheaval.
Bound by friendship and a shared vocation, they guide patients through grief, trauma, obsession, depression, and fear while their lives beyond the consulting room grow increasingly turbulent:
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David anchors his family during his fight to maintain a fragile marriage.
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Ebba navigates motherhood and divorce, wrestling with a longing that reshapes her understanding of love and loyalty.
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When his wife leaves him, Ben confronts the same crushing depression he has spent his career treating in others.
Interwoven with their journeys are the unfolding deeply human dramas of their patients’ lives: Debbie’s crippling guilt, Thelma’s incandescent grief, Darvesh’s disabling compulsions, and Sunny’s battle to reclaim her life.
Drawing on decades of professional insight, Shrinks: Tales of Transition explores the paradox at the heart of therapy: those who help others heal must eventually confront their own wounds. For fans of Koch’s novel Hired Gun, this collection also offers a window into the early career of David Lipman.
As the years pass and the stories unfold, David, Ebba, and Ben must tackle the question that echoes through every consulting room: how does one face suffering and still choose hope?
Coming Soon
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Shrinks: Tales of Transition is coming soon to these and other major retailers online.
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REVIEWS
What readers are saying
“What if the person we trust to fix our broken life is living with pain that mirrors our own? This is the landscape Bill Koch explores in Shrinks. Through a series of linked stories, Shrinks follows the lives and relationships of a group of psychologists and their patients, looking with insight and intimacy into their private thoughts and actions. With a deft touch, Koch quickly draws us in, making us confidantes and secret keepers. At its heart, Shrinks asks us to believe that despite the darkness and despair in our daily lives, there can be help and hope. Koch’s respected clinical background shines through, underpinning the stories with insider knowledge and echoes of true-life cases. His experience is his special edge. He has been there. How often do we fail to see mental health professionals as human beings, flawed, with demons of their own? Does this give them extra insight into the lives and struggles of their clients, or place an impossible burden on them? Shrinks takes a compassionate and unflinching look at the answers.”
—Trish Gauntlett, author of Bending Starlight
“Shrinks is a compact, sharply observed work that blends clinical insight with compassionate storytelling. Across its pages the author—writing with both professional authority and a novelist’s ear—explores the private lives of therapists and the patients who come to them, turning familiar clinical scenes into moments of moral and emotional revelation. The book’s strength lies in its ability to make the technical feel intimate: diagnostic language and therapeutic technique are never dryly expository but instead serve as lenses through which we see characters’ vulnerabilities and contradictions. The prose is clear and occasionally lyrical. The pacing is deliberate; chapters are short enough to be read in single sittings, which suits the subject matter—therapy itself is episodic, and the book mirrors that rhythm. Shrinks succeeds as a humane, thoughtful exploration of psychotherapy’s rewards and limits, and of psychotherapists’ personal lives. It will appeal to readers interested in psychology, anyone curious about what happens behind closed office doors, and those who appreciate character-driven fiction. The book’s honest portrayal of uncertainty—both clinical and personal—lingers after the last page, inviting reflection rather than offering easy answers. For its compassion, clarity, and moral seriousness, Shrinks is a quietly powerful read.”
—S.J. Welch, Ph.D., Faculty Emeritus, Douglas College Psychology
“If you've ever wondered about the secret life of therapists, wonder no more. Bill Koch, Clinical Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine, and the author of the critically acclaimed psychological thriller novel Hired Gun: Uncovering Buried Secrets has written a prequel which goes even deeper on unveiling the complexities of patients and their therapists. Shrinks, Tales of Transition reveals a fictional cast of complicated, colorful, endearing characters on both sides of the desk. Original and engaging, Koch’s writing and esteemed career in psychology have garnered him immense expertise in creating insight into this fascinating world for us all to sit back and enjoy.”
—Lisa Bagshaw - writer, host, producer, Bold Leaps
“What a great book! The writing is powerful with all the details and colorful contextual pictures. I particularly appreciated the therapeutic wisdom woven into the patients' stories. It will give readers a sense of what therapists do.”
—Lynn Alden, Ph.D., UBC Psychology Professor Emerita, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
“Koch uses his decades of experience in life and in the therapy room to illustrate the typicality and fragility of human existence. Shrinks: Tales of Transition does a splendid job of articulating the emotional turmoil of the three psychologists, David, Ben, and Ebba. Navigating their own salient life moments, Koch masterfully interweaves his characters’ existence with those of the people they are helping. In doing so, the vulnerability of humanity is beautifully on display.”
—Maureen Whittal, Ph.D., ABPP, Clinical Associate Professor – UBC Psychiatry
Co-Founder - Anxiety Canada, Founding Director – Bespoke Mental Health Canada
Watch the official teaser trailer...
