John J. Prendergast

Nonfiction, 2019 |189 pages

When someone I care about buys a book for me that they have read, I pay attention.  I figure they are either sending me a message (!) or sharing something that brought them joy.  So, I read The Deep Heart slowly and intentionally this weekend.

I found Prendergast to be a particularly poor writer.  He shares many random thoughts that never quite build to a conclusion.  His thoughts are based on his own ideas and experiences, with no research and little corroborating evidence from other professionals.  And his orientation is the medical model, that of a psychotherapist.  He assumes we need to be fixed, that we are broken, traumatized, unhealthy in some way.   He doesn’t leave much space for those who are not traumatized or have done significant personal work.  This may be a useful and helpful orientation for some readers.  However, I have been a coach for nearly 25 years.  Coaches start from a very different foundation.  We assume everyone is whole, complete, resourceful, creative, healthy, and simply want to add spice to their being, or plant new flowers to bloom, or enliven some aspect of their lives that may have deadened.

He claims most people don’t know if they have core limiting beliefs.  Seriously?  Have his clients been totally unaware of their hearts and emotions?  Have they never been introspective or done any work on themselves?  Yes, some of his perspectives made me stop and think.  I particularly enjoyed his embedded meditations.  I completed each one as I read.  I love the sense of being held by an awareness, a presence of heart (chapter nine).

Deep Heart?  It remains an elusive construct to me.

Thank you, Thom, for this gift.  I love the spirituality that you have brought to our relationship.  I suspect Prendergast offers insight and clarity.  I would love to hear.

October 2021