Maureen Jennings takes her readers on a voyage through what will probably be uncharted territory for most – a quest to find the artist within. The Map of Your Mind is a kind of travel guide into the unconscious, with Jennings, a psychotherapist with 25 years of experience, acting as tour guide. Validating the itinerary are various members of her creative-expression groups, whose written selections are included to illustrate the exercises included in the book.

The book is divided into six main sections, each of which contain sets of exercises with specific criteria, goals, or circumstances. In Section Two, “Coming to Your Senses,” the sets are based on the five senses, plus a sixth entitled “Total Physicality.” Here participants are asked to write about experiences, thoughts, or ideas that pertain to the senses. While some of this section’s ideas may seem overly traditional on the surface, when done alongside the book’s other sets, the participant will eventually explore a full of range of creative possibilities. Jennings succeeds in making these creative experiences as exploratory and thorough as possible.

The selections from Jennings’ creative-expression groups are both rich and inspiring, inciting the reader to participate in the exercises by offering proof of their positive results. The book’s overall tone is a tad too self-help oriented, and the intimate stories shared by both Jennings and her group members are sentimental at times, but the total effect is surprisingly original and comforting. The Map of Your Mind demonstrates that there are no limits to creative expression if we simply allow ourselves the opportunity.