The book Terapia. A Outra Face do Amor. Relatos de Uma Paciente Transexual by Laura Rodrigues Rocha is an unusual and thought-provoking work that sits at the intersection of autobiography, testimony, and personal discovery. On the surface, it tells the intimate story of a transgender woman, presenting her reflections, struggles, and healing process through the metaphor of therapy and the broader theme of love. Yet behind its pages lies a structure that mirrors the author’s approach to another long and patient project she carried out over nearly a decade: the creation of a series of self-taught music manuals.
Laura’s book does not rely on traditional scholarly references, academic frameworks, or the guiding voice of a teacher. Instead, it is written with the same philosophy that guided her manuals on musical instruments, which she conceived as complete works born of personal experience and self-study. In those manuals, dedicated to guitar, bass, and music theory, she laid out methods that connected one book to the other, forming a cohesive system built entirely on her own discoveries and organized around chord notation. What emerges is not only a technical guide but also a map of the author’s personal learning journey. In the same way, Terapia. A Outra Face do Amor can be understood as an extension of this methodology: an exploration of identity and self-acceptance that is written not from the perspective of authority but from the vulnerability of a learner sharing her progress with others who may face the same obstacles.
