Welcome, readers and others who want to explore provocative ideas that are rarely discussed but that have profound effects on our lives.

In my books, lectures and psychotherapy practice, I’ve made “Taboo Topics” my specialty. I offer new perspectives on such neglected issues as difficult siblings (I am the only therapist in the United States who specializes in treating “normal” siblings of the disabled and dysfunctional), women making choices about motherhood or who have chosen not to have children, whether we should always forgive, and the positive consequences of a parent’s death. Everything I write about is based on my personal experience as well as in-depth research.

Here you’ll find information about my books, read excerpts from them and glean advice. You can also read articles by and about me and link to my media appearances and radio broadcasts. I’m delighted to be blogging on all sorts of “Taboo Topics” for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.

I want to share what forty years of experience as a psychotherapist has taught me about psychological transformation and self-actualization in a one-size-fits-all world. I write for those who want to think and feel for themselves and are not afraid to look within.

The Golden Condom

Available Now!

Dr. Jeanne Safer has dedicated much of her decades’ long career in psychotherapy to exploring the taboo subjects that we all think about in private but seldom discuss in public. From conflicted sibling relationships to the choice not to have children, Safer’s work has always been unflinching in its aim to delve deep into the topics that make most of us blush but that are present in all our lives. In The Golden Condom, Safer turns her sharp, fearless eye to a subject perhaps more universal than any other–love in all its permutations.

In The Golden Condom, Safer interweaves her own experiences with those of a variety of memorable people, including her patients, telling a series of tales that investigates the types of relationships, both healthy and toxic, that most of us don’t escape life without experiencing at least once, including traumatic friendships, love after loss, unrequited or obsessional love, and more.

What People are Saying

“Jeanne Safer is like a best friend, a gifted therapist and an enchanting storyteller rolled into one. In a culture that romanticizes the idea of unconditional love, Safer reminds us that relationships are inherently contractual. Better yet, she shows is that it is within those contracts that genuine compassion and affection can truly–even ecstatically—flourish. This book is both a warm fuzzy and a sharp kick in the pants. Don’t let it far from your side.”

— Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects Of Discussion

“We live in a time of paradox: As sexual and emotional arrangements become ever more complicated, our culture insists on recycling antiquated myths about what love should be rather than what it is. Deeply informed and intensely intimate, The Golden Condom is a unique and necessary contribution to the popular literature on modern relationships. Drawing on a lifetime of experience, Jeanne Safer puts forth a wise, expansive vision of romance in all its variations, reminding us that love is earned more commonly than it’s found, and lasts even when it’s gone.”

— Kate Bolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own

“The Golden Condom is one of those brilliant, generous, and captivating psychology books, that will almost certainly free readers from the limits they have unknowingly set for themselves.”

— Simon Van Booy, Author of Father’s Day and The Secret Lives of People in Love