"The therapist-turned-patient whose memoir pulled back the curtain on both sides of the therapy room."
Lori Gottlieb is an American psychotherapist and author whose memoir "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" gave readers an unusually candid look inside both sides of the therapy room. After beginning her career as a journalist and television writer, Gottlieb retrained as a therapist and eventually found herself in an unexpected personal crisis that led her to seek out her own therapist—an experience that became the emotional backbone of the book. Weaving together her own therapy sessions with stories from several of her patients, "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" became a bestseller for demystifying the therapeutic process and showing that therapists, too, are simply humans working through their own pain.
Our in-depth summaries and reviews of his work
Lori Gottlieb's extraordinary memoir interweaving her own therapy journey with four patients' stories. A profound exploration of vulnerability, connection, and the courage…
Read Summary →Gottlieb argues people often say they want change while staying exactly the same, because real change always requires giving something up.
Part of genuine self-understanding, Gottlieb writes, is releasing the limiting narratives we've told ourselves so we can live our actual life rather than a rehearsed story about it.
Gottlieb resists ranking suffering, insisting that comparing whose pain is worse only minimizes the very real difficulty each person is experiencing.
"We can't have change without loss, which is why so often people say they want change but nonetheless stay exactly the same."— Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
"There's no hierarchy of pain. Suffering shouldn't be ranked, because pain is not a contest."— Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
"We tend to think that the future happens later, but we're creating it in our minds every day. When the present falls apart, so does the future we had associated with it."— Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
"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."— Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Lori Gottlieb's extraordinary memoir interweaving her own therapy journey with four patients' stories. A profound exploration of vulnerability, connection, and the courage to change.
