Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

I love a good memoir, and this one was a perfect example of the form. Thoughtful, funny, incredibly well-written, and structured, I cared deeply about Lori and her patients. As she weaves together stories from her training as a therapist, her patients, and her work with her own therapist, we see how incredibly damaging life and love are for us—and how those scars themselves make us more beautiful, more worthy of love, more capable of opening our hearts to others.

This does not make the human experience look easy or painless, but it does help me remember what the work… show more.

I believe one of the best ways to get to know yourself is by learning about other people’s similar experiences – after all, we can’t be it if we can’t see it.

That’s why I love Maybe You Should Talk To Someone; it explores how different people can better understand themselves through the lens of the therapist, who is also going through her own adversities.

I saw myself in this book as both a therapist and a client. An easy read that blurs fiction and nonfiction, I recommend it to anyone who might not like dense academic reads but… show more.

As a therapist, myself, I was so engaged when Lori Gottlieb was brave and candid enough to pull back the curtain in her therapy room where she struggled in her practice with a variety of defensive, complex patients.

How people tick and what makes them that way is a constant fascination to me. And her patients’ presenting issues were so familiar. But it was when the metaphysical rug was pulled out from under her and she took us with her to her own therapy sessions, that I was deeply engrossed. I learned a few brilliant approaches to different traumas and… show more.

As an admirer of the author, I read this book. I didn’t expect to love it so much, thinking it would simply be useful for my work. Not so! 

I was totally drawn in, and grew to care deeply for both the narrator and each of her patients, relating to the journey of each. It was emotional like great fiction and yet I learned so much…about myself. I sure hope it’s the first of many more to come.

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in learning more about the therapeutic process and the power of relationships. Through her own personal experiences as a therapist, Gottlieb provides readers with a unique perspective on the therapeutic process and what it means to be human. She artfully weaves together stories of her clients, exploring their struggles and triumphs in a way that is both engaging and relatable. 

Her writing style is both honest and compassionate—I laughed and cried at various points throughout the book and enjoyed her thought-provoking insights into the inner workings of therapy. She also provides… show more.

On the theme of letters, the irresistibly charming author receives and answers them in her Dear Analyst column for The Atlantic. But in addition to showing us the challenges of being a therapist, she bravely includes us in her own therapy. It is hard for me to come up with enough superlatives for this book: wildly funny, insightful, heartwarming, honest, compelling, tender, intensely relatable, and enlightening about what it means to be human. I never wanted it to end. If Kafka had been her patient he might never have written a word.