Michael Pond had helped hundreds of people recover from alcoholism, but he couldn’t help himself
After two decades of helping clients battle addictions, Michael Pond, a successful therapist, succumbs to one himself. He loses his practice, his home and his family to alcoholism, ending up destitute in a rundown recovery home populated by a cast of characters straight out of Dickens.

The Couch of Willingness is a real couch in that home, a couch where Pond is forced to sleep until he surrenders and admits he’s powerless over alcohol. But just when Pond gains any measure of sobriety, in sashays his other powerful addiction, Dana, a can of Red Bull in hand and a 26er of vodka in her purse.

Pond’s harrowing two-year journey to sobriety takes stops in abandoned sheds, dumpsters, ditches, emergency wards, intensive care, and finally, prison. His riveting account crackles with raw energy and black humour as he plunges readers into a world few will ever have the misfortune to experience.

Along the way, Michael the drunk finds himself shamed and stigmatized by the very system in which Michael the therapist thrived. The dissonance rankles for Pond and, by the end of the story, for the reader too.

Michael Pond is a psychotherapist practicing in West Vancouver, who specializes in mental health and addictions and is now four and a half years sober. He offers individual, family, and group therapy and has become an expert in treating people recovering from addictions and residential school abuse. He writes the biweekly "Professional Advice" column in the Vancouver Sun.

Michael Pond's profile page

Maureen Palmer spent two decades as an award-winning producer at the CBC, where she held senior positions in both radio and television production. She left in 2000 to produce series for TLC and the Discovery Channel. Shortly thereafter, she co-founded Bountiful Films, which has produced a string of critically acclaimed documentaries.

Maureen Palmer's profile page

The tradeoff between recalcitrant humour and boundless tragedy makes this addiction memoir one of a kind.

author of Memoirs of an Addicted Brain

I could not put this book down. An incredible story of downfall, triumph, camaraderie and survival, written in an honest and captivating manner. Truly a must-read!

Cea Person, Author, North of Normal

The Couch of Willingness is a passionate book around the struggle and path to recovery from addiction.

Dr. Bernard Le Foll, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

The Couch of Willingness is a riveting and anxiety-inducing read. Mike Pond tells his story of recovery from alcoholism with a brutally honest, warts-and-all approach that makes you want cheer for him and simultaneously slap him upside the head. Pond is the ultimate comeback kid who certainly has a guardian angel.

Arts and Life Editor, Vancouver Sun