The well-known Russell Brand advocates for mental health in the United Kingdom. He has been open about his recovery from numerous addictions in his best-selling memoir Recovery. He follows up that book with this look at mentoring, which helped him out of his hard spot. He is not focused as much on professional or career mentoring, but instead personal and life development. By remembering healthy relationships he’s had in the past, he teaches how to be a mentor – and a mentee in the process.

He describes personal mentoring as something different than parenting. Parents focus on providing an entire package of humanity to their children. Mentors focus on relating one skill while disregarding many other aspects of life. Brand describes how he was helped in recovery programs by mentors. (Indeed, seeking others’ counsel is an important part of 12-step programs.) Most of his advice fit hand-in-hand with traditional 12-step recovery programs.

Because Brand did not seek a college degree, all of his described experiences take place outside of school. He speaks about how he learned about life from people across many activities. He avoids religious mentoring, instead focusing on the secular domain. However, much of the shared advice overlaps with what one might find in a modern church with educated leadership. Indeed, the central thrust of this book shares how one can develop mental and spiritual health from mentors, much as many do with religious practice.

Those interested in mental health will particularly appreciate this work. Brand has brought mental health issues to the fore in Great Britain, and this book is further work towards those ends. He provides a unique voice and unique words to give to contemporary experiences. Many of us postmoderns lack a formal guide, whether in school or in religious practice, so Brand’s exploration seeks to retain essential counsel that might otherwise be forgotten. According to him, you cannot grow without acknowledging and learning from someone outside of you. Therefore, being a mentor and a mentee is an essential life skill that he seeks to cultivate in this book. ( )

What are some key insights I gained from this book?
There are 12 step programs out there which can help us heal and it involves first accepting that I have a problem and then actually seeking out and following the suggestions and guidance, prayer, meditation and trying to stay connected to the Creator is important, be teachable, give love and kindness and try to help others and remember that I do not always need to seek a mentor who is perfect and accountability is a good way to keep us on track and lastly that we need humility to approach someone and ask them to be our mentor. ( )