About the book:
Published in January, 2025 in Chinese, Expressions of a Heart (心的表达) is a collection of 31 essays on an array of topics about psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. These essays cover the author’s work and training experiences in the period of 2017~2024. Intended for a general readership, this book aims at increasing knowledge of mental health issues, demystifying the clinical process, lessening stigma for seeking treatment, and promoting an interest in in-depth treatments among contemporary Chinese readers.
Essays in Expressions of a Heart are grouped into four thematic sections: 1) Initial experiences as a therapy patient; 2) Work notes of a novice psychotherapist; 3) A psychotherapist’s daily practice; 4) Journal of a psychoanalytic candidate. In section 3, notably, the author contends for a connection between clinical work and the Six Paramitas (generosity, ethical conduct, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom) of the Mahayana Buddhism, and uses clinical vignettes to illustrate the connotations of each Paramita. Section 4 is mostly about the author’s training experiences at BPSI. She writes truthfully and passionately about her learning, supervision, work, and training analysis, in the meantime introducing basic analytic concepts, such as free association, transference, dream interpretation, etc., to the readers.
After its publication, this book quickly became a bestseller in China, and has been reprinted 3 times as of October, 2025.
About the author:
LI Qinyun (李沁云) is the pseudonym of Jing Li, LICSW, who is currently a Candidate in adult psychoanalysis training with BPSI. Jing runs a small private practice in Brookline, MA. Beyond clinical work, she is passionate about literature, film, translation, and theater arts. She has been writing in her native Chinese language since high school, and has published a variety of poems, stories, essays, movie reviews, translation works, etc. Expressions of a Heart is her first published book.
