Joseph S. Covais

Though it might be dressed up as a paranormal romance, Psychotherapy with Ghosts is also literary fiction; the story of how a disillusioned Psychotherapist changes from a cynic into someone with room for God, love, and a deeper purpose in his life. The story is told through two plotlines; one taking place in 1970, during the psychologist’s life—the other about 1840, during the life of Almira, the young woman whose troubled ghost inhabits the psychologist’s home. Over the arc of the 1970s story, failed psychotherapist, David Weiss, quits his Manhattan practice and moves into a remote, abandoned house on the shore of Lake Champlain. Angela, his girlfriend, fears the move will end their relationship. Meanwhile, a powerful bond develops between Weis and Almira. Together they first analyze the nature of her entrapment. Conventional psychotherapy begins to peel away her discontent, but her problem is spiritual—her estrangement from God. Their conversation then grows to explore his own estrangement, emotional, and interpersonal impairment. David’s fascination with Almira creates tension between him and Angela. Though she initially sees Almira as a rival.