Linda Soules Releases Kids' Career Book on Psychotherapy, 'So You Want To Be A Psychotherapist'

Author Linda Soules has released So You Want To Be A Psychotherapist: A Kids' Guide to Mental Health, Talk Therapy, Emotional Wellness, and the Caring Professionals Who Help People Understand Their Feelings and Heal, a 40-page children's nonfiction book now listed at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766465. Written for ages 10 to 14, the book explains what psychotherapists do, where they work, and what the job demands. It does so without simplifying the subject to the point of distortion. The title is part of Soules's So You Want To Be A… series of career-exploration books. It has already collected three honors: the Literary Titan Gold Book Award, the Grand Prize in the 2026 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, and a Silver Award in Children's Nonfiction from the 2026 CIPA EVVY Book Awards.

Career books for young readers tend to concentrate on jobs that are easy to see: firefighters, pilots, doctors, astronauts. Psychotherapy is harder to picture. Its central tool is conversation, its central skill is listening, and much of the work happens behind a closed door in a quiet room. For a child, the profession can be difficult to imagine, even though many children will meet a school counselor, a therapist, or a family member in treatment during their lives. Children are also encountering the vocabulary of mental health, including therapy, counseling, and emotional wellness, in classrooms and at home. A book that explains the profession plainly gives them a way to understand that vocabulary and, for some, to consider the work as a future path.

The book opens with a direct question: what does a psychotherapist actually do all day? Its answer is that listening, not advice-giving, is the core skill. From there it covers the places therapists work, which the book lists as offices, schools, hospitals, video calls, and even barns full of horses. It describes the tools of the trade in concrete terms: the two chairs, the tissue box, the fifty-minute hour, and the “doorknob moment” that therapists recognize, when a significant remark arrives just as a session ends. These details let young readers picture the profession as a real workplace with its own routines and vocabulary.

The book is candid about the job's rewards and its costs. It covers the small private victories as well as the hard parts of a life spent in a small room with two chairs, and it includes a day-in-the-life section that runs from morning tea to the moment the work stays at the office. A history section profiles six figures who shaped the field: Carl Rogers, Mamie Phipps Clark, Virginia Satir, Marsha Linehan, Anna Freud, and Derald Wing Sue. A section on essential qualities names deep listening, emotional steadiness, curiosity, and self-awareness. Back matter includes fun facts, a “Could This Be Your Job?” quiz, a kid-friendly glossary, and suggestions for where to learn more.

The book's main distinction is its tone. Soules's series operates on the premise that young readers are intellectual equals, and this volume applies it to a subject that adults often handle cautiously. The text does not talk down to its audience and does not sugarcoat the profession's difficulties. Its illustrations support the explanations rather than decorate them. The subject matter also sets it apart within career publishing for kids. Where most titles describe a job through its visible outputs, this one describes a profession whose work is largely invisible, and it explains that work through the ordinary objects, schedules, and habits of mind that define it. The roster of featured trailblazers also reflects a field shaped by people of different backgrounds and approaches.

"Kids are smarter and more curious than publishing often assumes. A career book about listening should be as honest as the work itself," said Linda Soules, author of the So You Want To Be A… series.

The book is aimed first at readers ages 10 to 14, a stage when many children begin forming ideas about what adults do for a living and start noticing their own emotional lives more closely. The publisher description points to a particular kind of reader: the empathetic child whom friends turn to, and who holds a silence a beat longer than everyone else. Parents and caregivers can use the book to open conversations about feelings, therapy, and seeking help. Teachers and school counselors may find it useful for career-exploration units, and librarians can place it alongside other titles on psychology and health. Younger children may also enjoy it as a read-aloud, with an adult supplying context, and the book is structured to prompt discussion across a household.

The recognition for the book spans both children's literature and independent publishing. The Literary Titan Gold Book Award, the Purple Dragonfly Grand Prize for 2026, and the CIPA EVVY Silver Award in Children's Nonfiction each evaluate books by different criteria and through different communities of judges. Together they indicate that the title has been reviewed favorably as a piece of writing, as a children's book, and as a work of nonfiction. For booksellers, librarians, and educators who select titles based on independent endorsements, the awards offer outside signals to weigh alongside the book's description. The release carries those honors on the cover and in its listing materials, and each is cited in the Amazon description for the title.

So You Want To Be A Psychotherapist is available through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766465. The book is a 40-page children's nonfiction title with the ISBN 978-1-972766-46-0. Readers can find the full description, the list of included features, and current purchasing options on the product page. Librarians, educators, and retailers can use the ISBN to locate the title through standard ordering channels. Pricing and available formats are shown on the product page, and readers should consult the listing for current details. Review inquiries and interview requests for Linda Soules can be directed through the book's listing.

The new book extends a series that Soules describes as a long-term project. According to the author, the So You Want To Be A… series is envisioned to span more than 180 titles, with over 60 published to date and new releases arriving on a steady cadence. Subjects already covered range from astronauts and marine biologists to magicians, stunt performers, and roller coaster designers. Psychotherapy adds a profession grounded in human relationships rather than technology or spectacle. Each book follows the same approach: pull back the curtain on a real career, show its joys and challenges and the path to get there, and leave readers with the sense that the world is wider and more reachable than they imagined.

About Linda Soules and the So You Want To Be A… series: Linda Soules is the author and creator of the series, a growing collection of career-exploration books for readers ages 10 to 14 and beyond. Before turning to children's publishing, she spent 25 years in law and finance, advising hedge funds and sophisticated financial institutions on legal and regulatory matters. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children. Her guiding philosophy is never to talk down to young readers, who she believes are smarter, more curious, and more capable than the publishing world often credits. So You Want To Be A Psychotherapist is listed at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972766465.