Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
'Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed' by Lori Gottlieb is a memoir that intricately weaves together the author's personal therapy journey with the stories of some of her patients. Through the lens of a therapist seeking therapy after a breakup, the author explores different timelines with different clients, tackling themes such as death, addiction, grief, and loss. Gottlieb presents a raw and real account of life as a therapist, shedding light on the struggles, growth, and insights gained both by the patients and herself along the therapeutic process.
Readers are taken on a journey of self-discovery and introspection as Gottlieb delves into the personal and professional aspects of therapy, providing valuable insights into human behavior, coping mechanisms, and the complexities of relationships. Through poignant storytelling and engaging narratives, the author presents a multifaceted view of therapy, highlighting the universal themes of struggle, healing, and the quest for meaning in our lives.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include discussions of mental health struggles, including depression, terminal illness, addiction, and grief, which may be sensitive to some readers.
From The Publisher:
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
Now being developed as a television series with Eva Longoria and ABC!
"Rarely have I read a book that challenged me to see myself in an entirely new light, and was at the same time laugh-out-loud funny and utterly absorbing."-Katie Couric
"This is a daring, delightful, and transformative book."-Arianna Huffington, Founder, Huffington Post and Founder & CEO, Thrive Global
"Wise, warm, smart, and funny. You must read this book."-Susan Cain, New York Times best-selling author of Quiet
From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world-where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose of-fice she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives - a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys - she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is rev-olutionary in its candor, offering a deeply per-sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly reveal-ing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.
Ratings (44)
Incredible (13) | |
Loved It (18) | |
Liked It (10) | |
It Was OK (1) | |
Did Not Like (2) |
Reader Stats (92):
Read It (46) | |
Currently Reading (1) | |
Want To Read (36) | |
Did Not Finish (3) | |
Not Interested (6) |
5 comment(s)
Sometimes you pick up a book in just the right moment. I read and finished it this weekend and it was a real comfort as well as interesting memoir that teached me a bit. Found it easy to get attached to and enjoyed the writing quite a lot. See that it's gotten quite the mixed rating but it's still a 5 stars. Perhaps it was the power of reading it at the perfect time
Wow, what a way to start off the year. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I know that I’ll continue to think back on it often and remember the stories and lessons learned. The best books always stick with you in that way.
I’m grateful that Lori Gottlieb wrote a book that isn’t just informative, but insightful, personal, and memorable as well. This book helped me see myself and others more clearly.
While this memoir could easily have been heavy, it kept me laughing throughout. It didn’t take reading past the first few pages to see how funny and relatable Lori is. I hope to read more from her in the future.
One of the most enlightening books I have ever read. I laughed. I cried. I didn’t want this book to end. I will add this book to the very short list of books I will read again... and maybe even again. I can not recommend this book enough!
Here are some of the parts that resonated the most with me.
“The second people felt alone, usually the space in between things—leaving a therapy session, at a red light, standing in a line, riding the elevator—they picked up devices and ran away from the feeling. In a state of perpetual distraction they seemed to be losing the ability to be with others and losing the ability to be with themselves.”
“We can’t have change without loss, which is why so often people say they want change but nonetheless stay exactly the same.”
“There’s no hierarchy of pain. Suffering shouldn’t be ranked, because pain is not a contest.”
“But part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself—to let go of the limiting stories you’ve told yourself about who you are so that you aren’t trapped by them, so you can live your life and not the story you’ve been telling yourself about your life.”
“If the queen had balls, she’d be the king.” If you go through life picking and choosing, if you don’t recognize that “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” you may deprive yourself of joy.”
“two hundred years ago, the philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe succinctly summarized this sentiment: “Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.”
“Yalom wrote in Existential Psychotherapy, our awareness of death helps us live more fully—and with less, not more, anxiety. “
“You can’t get through your pain by diminishing it. You get through your pain by accepting it and figuring out what to do with it.”
Funny, insightful, and oh so human. I fell in love with this book, with the therapy and the thoughts and feelings of everyone in here.
surprisingly readable, written in an engaging manner
What can you read after
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed?
About the Author:
Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and author of the New York Times bestseller Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a television series. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic's weekly "Dear Therapist" advice column and contributes regularly to The New York Times and many other publications. Her recent TED Talk is one of the top 10 most watched of the year. A member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change to Mind, she is a sought-after expert in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS This Morning, CNN, and NPR's "Fresh Air." She is also the co-host of the new iHeart Radio podcast, "Dear Therapists," produced by Katie Couric. Learn more at LoriGottlieb.com or by following her on Twitter @LoriGottlieb1 and Instagram @lorigottlieb_author.
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