A Novel by Sherry Helgoe, Psy.D.
What Went Well
A Psychologist, Seven Women, and Eight Weeks That Changed Them All
Seven women, fluent in the language of being fine. Eight sessions to let themselves be known.
“An intimate portrait of how group therapy can give truly necessary human connection.”
River Grove Books · Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN 979-8-90052-121-3 · $19.95
“Helgoe invites readers into the sacred space of group therapy in this emotional novel.”
“A perceptive novel about the simple power of being heard and feeling understood.”
— Foreword Clarion Reviews
About the Book
Sometimes it takes hearing another woman share her story to understand your own.
For twenty-five years, psychologist Dr. Hannah Erickson has led therapy groups, listening as people search for the words to describe the parts of themselves they keep hidden. When she brings seven women together for eight sessions, each arrives believing her struggles are hers alone.
One evening each week, in a circle of chairs, these strangers begin to recognize themselves in one another’s stories: a woman who carries the weight of everyone else’s needs; a mother whose self-worth has always been staked on achieving more; a dedicated artist whose family still calls her art a hobby; a young woman uncertain whether the life she is building is the one she truly wants. The recognition is not always gentle. Tensions rise, old defenses hold their ground, and some weeks a woman almost doesn’t come back. Every session closes with the same question. In the first week, the answers are small. They do not stay small.
After each session, Hannah records her thoughts in a private journal: what she noticed, what she is listening for, the questions she holds about each woman, and, increasingly, the ones she must ask herself. Even the therapist is changed by what unfolds inside the circle. Hannah sits in one of her own.
What Went Well is a novel about the stories these women inherited, the patterns they didn’t choose, and what begins to change the first time each of them is truly seen.
Meet Hannah and the Women in the Room
The first night, as Hannah sees it.
Hannah stands at the door, welcoming each arrival. She has done this for twenty-five years, and she knows that everything matters: every movement, every silence, every choice of seat. The circle is already telling a story in the way the women arrange themselves. She reads it the way she reads everything, quietly, completely, and keeps what she sees for the journal she will open after the last chair empties.
- AnnaArrives first, chooses the seat nearest the door, and maps the room with quick, methodical eyes, as though memorizing every way out.
- FionaEnters in a rush of jangling bracelets and breathless apology, her warmth filling the doorway before she does.
- BethanyCarries a canvas tote that reads Mom Life in cheerful script, and holds it in her lap a little too tightly.
- GraceMoves unhurried, composed, as though she has come from a pleasant lunch rather than a life. Nothing about her is accidental.
- ClaraHovers at the threshold, a large sketchbook clutched to her chest like something between a shield and an offering.
- EvelynWears her tailored blazer like armor, silences her phone with practiced efficiency, and crosses her arms before anyone has said a word.
- ZaraSlips in last, cheeks flushed, glasses sliding, reading the room the way young therapists do when they have not yet learned how to simply be in one.
- Seven chairs taken. The eighth is yours.
What each woman is carrying, and what she does with it, is the book.
The Author
Sherry Helgoe, Psy.D.
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
Professor of Group Therapy, Pepperdine University
Sherry Helgoe, PsyD, is a licensed therapist in California who has been in private practice for twenty-five years, working with individuals, couples, and therapy groups. She has also taught graduate psychology courses at Pepperdine University for the past eighteen years, including Group Therapy, where she trains graduate students to become group therapists. Several years ago, she joined an international therapy group as a member. Since then, she has experienced the circle from both perspectives, as therapist and participant. Her debut novel, What Went Well, was written from both chairs. She lives in Southern California and loves traveling the world, exploring the country in an Airstream with her husband and their pups, and spending time with family and friends.
A note on the characters: no woman in these pages is drawn from a single real client. Each is a composite, shaped by the emotional patterns that surface again and again in the group room, and each is a portrayal I hope you find some part of yourself in. The privacy of my clients and my students is, and always will be, absolute. What is true here is not any one person’s story. It is the patterns we share: how we relate, how we love, and what we carry from the families that shaped us.
For Readers, Book Clubs, and Speaking Events
Ways into the circle
Free Journal
A free companion journal for readers who want to do the group’s work alongside the women: the turning points, the inner critics, the letters to a younger self. Eight sessions. Your pace.
Available February 2, 2027Book Clubs
A reading guide built for real conversation, with discussion questions for each week of the group and a closing ritual to end your meeting the way Hannah ends hers: with what went well.
Guide arriving at launchSpeaking & Events
What happens in a room where people stop performing fine? Dr. Helgoe has spent twenty-five years finding out, first as the therapist leading the circle, then as a member inside one. Her talks bring that room to yours.
Inquire about speaking
For Creators and Reviewers
Request a PR box
If you share books on TikTok or Instagram, or lead a book club, you can request a PR box with a finished copy of What Went Well.
A limited number are available. Boxes ship in early January, ahead of the February 2 release.
Not every request can be filled. If a box is coming your way, you will get an email before it ships.
Free Journal
The Eighth Chair, the companion journal to What Went Well, will be here to download on February 2, 2027.
No sign-up and no email required.