‘Deeply thoughtful and compassionate’  Susie Orbach, author of  In Therapy

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‘As a GP I wish I could send patients to Penelope Campling; as someone worried about failing mental health services, I wish she were in charge.’  Gavin Francis, author of  Adventures in Human Being

NHS psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr Penelope Campling has spent a lifetime on the frontline of mental health care, working with patients in crisis. Now she has an urgent message for us all: with our health service at breaking point, we are failing people in serious mental distress. We can and must do better.

Dr Campling invites us into her therapy room. At the forefront of a radically new approach to working with mental illness, she shows how therapeutic communities have helped her patients to break generational cycles of trauma, change crippling internal narratives of shame and despair, overcome abuse and rebuild their lives to find meaning and hope.

Moving and insightful, On the Brink combines patients’ stories with candid self-reflections on the difficult business of helping others.

‘A book with the power to move and inform . . . [Campling] is an expert in “intelligent kindness”.’  Gwen Adshead, author of  The Devil You Know

‘[An] insightful, important book . . . an exhibition of what could be possible and an invitation to act to deliver that vision.’  Kathryn Mannix, author of  Listen

‘This book oozes compassion and kindness and made me want to be a more understanding doctor.’  Kate Milton,  British Journal of GP Practice

Previously published in hardback under the title Don’t Turn Away: Stories of Troubled Minds in Fractured Times

As Featured on BBC Woman’s Hour

‘Deeply thoughtful and compassionate’  Susie  Orbach, author of  In Therapy

‘A  book with the power to move and inform . . . [Campling] is an expert in “intelligent kindness”.’  Gwen Adshead, author  of The Devil You Know

‘Fantastic new book from Penny Campling – 5 stars’ Dr Kate Lovett

Over the course of her 40-year career, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Penelope Campling has worked with patients from all walks of life, from survivors of abuse to ICU doctors struggling under the strain of Covid-19. She has seen many positive changes in how we approach mental health – and yet she is increasingly troubled by the state of our health services. Too often those suffering from serious mental illness are being neglected, locked away, even abused.

In Don’t Turn Away  Campling takes us into the therapy room, offering unique insight into how we treat those in distress. She shows us how the progress made in a more optimistic era of psychiatry is fast being eroded; how our struggling healthcare system often fails those who need our support; and how crucial it is in today’s uncertain world that we do not turn away.

Candid, compassionate and, above all, hopeful,  Don’t Turn Away  is a story of troubled minds and how we try to heal them.  

‘[An] insightful, important book . . . an exhibition of what could be possible and an invitation to act to deliver that vision.’ Kathryn Mannix, author of Listen