When the Ache Remains: Lessons on Tending to the Unfixable and Finding Beauty Anyway

Psychotherapist and author of Already Enough, Lisa Olivera blends her own personal experience of living with depression with therapeutic wisdom in a moving exploration of the emotional pain each of us lives with to offer readers guidance on holding the ache alongside the beauty.

Emotional pain, of all kinds and magnitudes, is part of life. We'll never be able to find ourselves free of it; no meditation or amount of therapy will cure us of the harder parts of being alive. The practice of turning toward the ache with care--reverence, even--might be one of the most meaningful gifts we can give ourselves. It might even save us.

Lisa Olivera has confronted this reality for years as a therapist, weaving her exploration of it throughout her popular newsletter, Human Stuff. She asks questions like, how do we confront and tend to the painful parts of being human without letting that pain entirely overtake us? How do we find joy even when depression visits, even when we lose someone we love, even when the hurt of the world is ever-present? How do we cultivate aliveness in the midst?

When the Ache Remains explores these questions for readers in a tender and wise exploration of how ache shapes life, how we can alchemize our pain into medicine, and how presence is accessible even in the midst of difficulty. Blending deeply personal narrative, humanistic psychology, lessons from nature, words of nourishment, and her naturally poetic undertone, Lisa invites readers on a journey alongside her as she explores the impact of depression and the process of learning to tend to it, and all of our aches, in more open, integrative, and loving ways.

Author: Lisa Olivera
Publisher: Balance
Published: 04/28/2026
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.76lbs
Size: 8.26h x 6.21w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781538773932

About the Author
Lisa Olivera is a writer, author, licensed psychotherapist, mother, and creator of the Human Stuff newsletter. Over the last decade, she has supported thousands of people in remembering their true selves and embracing the multitudes of being human. She has worked in schools, community-based mental health, and private practice, all of which inform her lens of the world. Lisa's work has been highlighted in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Good Morning America, and The Guardian. She has appeared on many podcasts including Adoptees On, Hurry Slowly, and Off the Grid. Her debut book, Already Enough, was published in 2022. She lives in Northern California with her husband, daughter and two cats.