Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

Lori Gottlieb

Apr 2019 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“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 office 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 revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing 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 and reviews

Very well-written story that can also serve as a gentle introduction to (or advertisement for) psychotherapy. The author's vulnerability won me over from the start, and I couldn't put the book down -- good thing I started reading on a long weekend! I appreciate that the author wove psychology concepts into the story, and managed to avoid distracting from the story. For comparison, this feels like a story with a psychology background, whereas most self-help books are psychology with bits of stories.

An amazing read that is introspective and touching on so many levels. This piece is masterfully put together, encapsulating the interesting stories of patients and those adjacent to the author in a way that truly shows the human experience. This book caused me to examine my own life. Lori truly mastered the balance between writer and therapist because she composes in such a way that anyone can relate. A true masterpiece in my eyes. I'm thankful a friend recommended this work of art to me.

Just finished this book, and I cannot recommend it enough. As a story, it's a page-turner. I became so invested in all of these people's lives. As a "therapy book," it's insightful, meaningful, and surprisingly kind. I read this as an ebook so that I could read it during slow times at work, but I think I'm going to have to buy a physical copy to keep on my bookshelf at home. Excellent!

About the author

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which has sold over one million copies and is currently being adapted as a television series. In addition to her clinical practice, she is co-host of the popular “Dear Therapists” podcast and writes The Atlantic’s “Dear Therapist” advice column. She is a sought-after expert in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, and NPR’s “Fresh Air” and her TED Talk was one of the Top 10 Most Watched of the Year. She is the creator of the Maybe You Should Talk To Someone Workbook: A Toolkit for Editing Your Story and Changing Your Life and the Maybe You Should Talk To Someone Journal: 52 Weekly Sessions to Transform Your Life. Learn more at LoriGottlieb.com or by following her on Instagram @lorigottlieb_author and Twitter @LoriGottlieb1.