HEALING WORDS

Holistic psychologist Dr Nicole LePera has promoted self-healing to her 3.7 million Instagram followers for years; she’s now written a book on it

- Manvi Pant

Even as a child, Nicole LePera loved learning about human thoughts and behaviour. “Growing up, I often felt different from others I met, and for as long as I can remember, I was drawn to understand what made people behave as they did,” writes the successful Los Angeles-based psychologist and Instagram icon in her newly launched book, How to Do the Work (Hachette, ₹599).

The book, which Dr Nicole’s 3.7 million followers on Instagram had been anticipating for weeks, lays a strong emphasis on awakening one’s ‘inner child’, and is equally applicable for parents and non-parents. “The inner child is created from our childhood experiences,” Dr Nicole tells eShe. “The greatest impact on our inner child comes from our parent-figures who ideally meet our physical, emotional, spiritual needs. As each person does the work, they heal their own inner child, and model a new way of existing for their children. We teach the younger generation to have a healthy relationship to their inner child by showing them our own healthy relationship with our inner child.”

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Dr Nicole’s understanding of human behaviour coupled with her own experiences as a child led her to Cornell University where she studied psychology, and then to a PhD in clinical psychology at the New School of Social Research, New York. After studying various therapeutic models designed specifically for mental ailments, she realised, “The idea of harnessing the power of the body to help heal the mind was dismissed as antiscience. Or worse, New Age nonsense.” In 2018, she launched her private practice focusing on holistic psychology.