Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Lori Gottlieb
From a psychotherapist, and national advice columnist comes a thought-provoking 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. more
415 pages, Hardcover
First published Harper
4.38
Rating
316400
Ratings
27622
Reviews
Lori Gottlieb
19 books 31408 followers
LORI GOTTLIEB is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOMEONE, which has sold nearly two 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, which features real sessions with real people and offers actionable advice, 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 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.
Community reviews
If you've followed me here on Goodreads for any length of time, you probably know that I am incredibly passionate about mental health advocacy. It's something that we need to talk about more, so we can break down the stigma surrounding it and more people can pursue help. So it should not be a surprise that I was excited to read a memoir about a therapist pursuing therapy to help her deal with her own issues—or that I absolutely loved the book. These days, I'm pretty open about the fact that I see a therapist and I love it. I have (only semi) jokingly said many times that I think everyone should give it a try at least twice—go to the initial intake appointment then go at least once more to get a feel for it. more
I read the first 2/3 of the physical book and teetered between 4 or 5 stars before I switched to the audiobook in the last 1/3 and ended up crying in a few of the chapters, solidifying the 5-star rating. The author comes across as genuine and insightful in her writing, and the narrator does such a good job at sounding compassionate and patient, as if I were listening to the therapist herself. She wrote a lot of insights that resonated with me, like how we often stay in our negative mindset because it's easier than trying to break free into the unknown, or how we use anger as a way to cover up our sadness (I'm paraphrasing here, but she writes it way better in the book haha). I also loved going through her three patients' emotional journeys, finding out more about their lives, and crying along with them for all the tragedies and breakthroughs. They each personally resonated with me in different ways. more
next up on the dinner party book club menu. join us here. discussion on january 16. ----------------------original reviewreading this because i'm nosy. and i have to say, this scratched that itch in the nicest way. more
Face it, we could all use therapy. This memoir pulls back the curtain on the benefits of therapy, the stigmas, our hesitancy to open up about mental health, and also becomes a celebration of life. The setup is that Lori, a therapist herself, experiences a life-shattering breakup and decides to start therapy mostly for selfish reasons--getting someone to agree that her ex-boyfriend is a jerk. Juxtaposed with that are the stories of Lori’s clients and their growth. While Lori experiences growth, she has an increased understanding of the other side of the sofa, and her own complex emotions. more
"frequentemente, quando os pacientes presenciam nossa humanidade, eles nos deixam"obrigada lori por alugar 3 apartamentos de luxo na minha cabeça durante TODA leitura desse livro e pós-leitura também, já que terminei há umas 3 horas e ainda to pensando nele. more
A warm, engaging, and funny book about a therapist who sees a therapist after her boyfriend breaks up with her. I so appreciate Maybe You Should Talk to Someone for further destigmatizing therapy. I read somewhere that my generation is the “therapy generation” and yet so much stigma and misinformation surrounding therapy persists. Gottlieb describes her experience in therapy for herself and the therapy she provides to a few different patients with compassion and humor. Her writing style is conversational and demystifies therapy, both the process and the emotion involved, and her deep care for her patients and her own therapist is wonderful to read. more
I'm writing this review to see if I can make sense of my experience with this book. Even though I found myself immersed in it for days, and making as much time as possible to read it, the experience ended up not being completely satisfying for a few reasons. My main complaint is: the stories are real but are supposedly disguised enough to protect her clients' privacy. so they aren't real. I was reading about those compelling characters and wondering what percentage of what she tells is the truth. more
It is always dispiriting to see some people spending all their time on their physical health while totally ignoring their mental health. The lack of awareness and the stigma associated with mental health is a topic that has been discussed for decades. Apart from a few people in some countries, most people are still in their rudimentary phases regarding mental health awareness. The colossal role played by organizations like WHO in spreading mental health awareness is praiseworthy. Still, there are limitations to the extent to which they can impact human lives due to the high population index in this world. more
Audiobook…narrated by Brittany Pressley. ( Brittany was excellent). I can see reasons for owing a hard copy as well as the Audiobook. Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist who writes a “Dear Therapist” advice column. She lives in Los Angeles. more
ONE STAR AUDIOIt's not you, it's me. Anne Bogel enthusiastically raved about this book on her weekly podcast What Should I Read Next. She recommended it in the same breath as Ask Again, Yes and I am obsessed with that book. So, despite my misgivings about listening to all the therapist-speak, I used a precious Audible credit on Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed. Lori Gottlieb has had an interesting life working in Hollywood first as a tv producer on shows like Friends. more
Livro necessário demais. Um dos favoritos do ano <3. more
I enjoyed Gottlieb's previous book Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough when it came out many moons ago, and was delighted to see her new release. (It was also fun to see where life had taken her in the intervening years. ) Now a psychotherapist, in these pages Gottlieb gets to the heart of what matters in life: how do we grow, how do we change, how do we connect with each other—and how can we do it all more effectively. She explores human nature through the lens of psychotherapy, employing an unusual two-pronged approach to show us how therapy really works. more
في يوم وليلة، تنقلب حياة الكاتبة والمعالجة النفسية لوري غوتليب رأسًا على عقب إثر تعرضها لتجربة نفسية سيئة بانفصالها عن زوجها المنتظر لسببٍ تراه تافهًا ومستفزًا، فجأة، تتحول المعالجة النفسية التي يُفترض أنها على دراية وخبرة بالنفس البشرية إلى إنسانة عادية، هشّة، مُحبطة، حانقة، غاضبة من نفسها ومن العالم، ومن منا لا يغضب ويثور على العالم مع كل خيبة أمل تصفعنا على وجوهنا فجأة؟، تبحث المعالجة النفسية عن مساعدة طبيب نفسي زميل يساعدها، يقودها القدر إلى الطبيب "ويندل"، ومع اللقاء الأول تبدأ الرحلة، رحلة تشريح النفس البشرية، بصراعاتها وتعقيداتها، يساعدها على إعادة النظر في حياتها بكل تفاصيلها وجوانبها النفسية والإجتماعية والمهنية وصولًا إلى العاطفية، والتي تتشابه وتتقاطع مع حياتي وحياة كل قارئ سيقرأ هذا الكتاب، ليصير العنوان الفرعي للكتاب خير مُعبّر عن محتواه: معالج نفسي، وحياتنا كما يكتشفها. تمزج الكاتبة قصتها مع حكاياتٍ أخرى لمرضاها – أو عملاءها حسب وصفها – وتشمل أربع شخصيات رئيسية بأربع مراحل عمرية مختلفة، الأولى سيدة مسنة تشعر بالوحدة وتبحث عن رفيقٍ تقضي معه سنواتها الأخيرة بعدما فارقها الأبناء، والثانية أنثى شابة في أوائل العشرينات تخوض حربًا مع مشاعرها تجاه الجنس الآخر بحثًا عن حبيب مناسب بالتزامن مع حربها مع إدمان الكحول، أما الثالثة فهي مريضة بالسرطان في مرحلة متأخرة تبحث عن مساعدة لجعل روحها أكثر خفة ولمحو غضبها من العالم قبل أن تفارقه بحثًا عن السكينة في العالم الآخر، وآخرهم عميل متزوج ناجح مهنيًا يبحث عن سعادته وسط مجتمع من الأغبياء. كل حكاية بتاريخ مختلف وصراعات نفسية مختلفة، مزيج مبهر يلخص النفس البشرية وما تخوضه من صراعات في م��تلف مراحل العمر ومختلف الحالات الاجتماعية والصحية، وهذه أولى علامات التميز في هذا الكتاب البديع. تتضافر الحكايات وتتشابك، عبر فصول قصيرة سريعة فائقة المتعة نتنقل بين الحكايات الخمس وكأن الكتاب تحول إلى رواية متعددة الفصول، العبقرية في هذا الكتاب تتمثل في تلقائيته وصراحته المتناهية، لذا نجحت الحكايات المعروضة والحوارات والأسئلة المطروحة للنقاش بين الكاتبة ومعالجها أو بين الكاتبة ومرضاها في أن تلمسني ببراعة وتجعلني جزءًا من الكتاب لا مجرد قارئ يقرأ حكايات لينساها غدًا أو بعد غد. هذا كتاب شافٍ، ينكأ جراحك وخيبات أملك ويساعدك على فك شفرة أكثر الأمور النفسية تعقيدًا في حياتك، يعالج شروخ علاقاتك بمن حولك: بوالديك، بزوجتك، أو أبناءك، وعلى رأسهم علاقتك بنفسك، فمن منا لم يتحامل على روحه ويُدميها وينهك نفسه بنفسه؟، من منا لم يعاني من علاقة سامة جعلته يكره ذاته ويستشعر الضعف فيها رغم أنه لا بأس به؟، من منا لم يصرخ في عجز: رباه متى ينتهي كل هذا الألم؟. more
I rarely give a book one-star because I don't want to be mean, but this book was a complete waste of my time and it had such great reviews from so many people. I feel like I was cheated out of however long it took me to read (well, actually listen). If you want to read about psychotherapy, go to the real sources. If you want to read a memoir, go read a good one. I just don't even know what the point of this was. more
I don’t read a lot of nonfiction and am trying to branch out into that a little more. I tend to get bogged down in facts while reading nonfiction, but Maybe You Should Talk to Someone moves along at the pace of a good novel; I found it to be a fantastic little gem. Author Lori Gottlieb has worn a lot of hats—TV producer (Friends, ER), psychotherapist, and writer. This book was inspired by Lori’s own issues leading her to seek therapy herself. Along the way she focuses on four very different patients of her own. more
I suppose my experience with Maybe You Should Talk to Someone was a bit like the experience of finding the right therapist. While it came highly recommended, it just wasn’t the perfect fit for me. In this memoir, Lori Gottlieb weaves the stories of her own therapy sessions between those of her patients. She’s honest about her personal struggles as well as her internal thoughts about those she’s treating, and I think maybe that latter bit was part of the stumbling block for me. It may not have been her intention (and probably wasn’t), but I detected an air of judgment that could be a barrier to those seeking the normalization of therapy and mental health issues. more
ربما عليك أن تكلم أحد. كتاب أخر تقييماته عالية و مع ذلك معجبنيش أبداً ومش حقدر أكمله. الكتاب عبارة عن مذكرات طبيبة نفسية بتتكلم فيه عن عدد من مرضاها ومشاكلهم كما إنها بتتكلم عن حياتها الشخصية و مرورها بتجربة إنفصال مؤلمة مما أدي إلي ذهابها هي أيضاً لدكتور نفسي. الصراحة الكتاب بالنسبة لي كان ممل جداً و لم أجد فيه أي إستفادة من الحكايات سواء حكايات المرضي أو حتي حكاية الطبيبة نفسها. قرأت نصفه فقط وحسيت إني بضيع وقتي علي الفاضي والتقييم بنجمتين لهذا الجزء فقط. more
What is therapy like. The author breaks down the walls and gives us a peek behind closed doors into her sessions with clients as well as sessions with her own therapist, who she consults after a devastating break-up. We also get glimpses into the author's education, career, and her personal life. I felt as if I got to know her and her patients and I became invested in their lives. Details were changed for confidentiality, but the spirit of the stories remained true and the problems were real. more
This memoir was written by a therapist who, after a sudden and unexpected breakup, decided to go see a therapist of her own. In the book, while she's seeking treatment, she takes us inside sessions with her own patients, who are all fighting demons of their own. As she helps them, she - with the help of her therapist- attempts to figure out what the next phase in her life is going to look like. Before she can do that, though, she gives us a peek into her past. This book is absolutely beautiful and so clever, mimicking the therapy process as the author holds certain things back until later in the book. more
Feels a bit voyeuristic to say that I found this book thoroughly absorbing, but the author manages to make the therapeutic experience, her own and that of her patients, so engaging that at times it felt fictional. No surprise, the author is also a journalist. Part memoir, part self-help wisdom and part psychotherapy primer, Gottlieb strikes a conversational tone and doesn’t seem to take herself too seriously. What she does take very seriously, and with great compassion, is each patient’s path to living a more complete and fulfilling life. From the patient facing a terminal illness to the woman who chose to stay in a toxic relationship, one in which her children were abused and even to the self-absorbed television executive, she finds, as she tells us, that ‘there’s something likeable in everyone’ and it is in this acknowledgement where she seems to find the empathy to help without judgment. more
یک روش تشخیص اینکه آیا بیمار برای اتمام جلسات آماده است این است که او صدای روانشناس را در فکر خود می شنود و آن را در موقعیت های مختلف به کار میگیرد، که در اصل در این صورت نیاز به روان درمانی برطرف می شود باید در نظر بگیرم که این برای یک کتاب هم صدق می کنه. وقتی از لحظه ای که شروعش کردم تا الان که از تموم شدنش چند روز گذشته صدای این کتاب رو توی گوشم می شنوم و حداقل در سه تا مکالمه گفتم" توی این کتابی که خوندم می گفت" و این یعنی تاثیر یک تراپیست نویسنده ی عالی مثل لوری گوتلیببهترین زمان ممکن خوندمش. زمانی که در یک سردرگمی بزرگ دست و پا می زنم و ترس "دیر شدن" به وجودم چنگ انداخته. با همه ی وجودم با زندگینامه/تراپی لوری همراه شدم. هم فکر کردم و هم حس کردمتجربه ی خوندن این کتاب یعنی نشستن در اتاق یک روان شناس. more
I'm a therapist. blah blah. My boyfriend broke up with me. blah blah. My patient did this and that. more
I saw one of my friends reviews on this book and I thought, "What the hell". I mean I love self help memoir type books. AND I loved this one. Read from library. Sooooooooooooo, as you know me, Ima get me a hardback of it. more
i love memoirs that are like self help books but aren't in your face about it. my new favorite nonfic genre. aka this book. full review to come⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ pre-read i agree lori i definitely should talk to someone a therapist. more
الكاتبة والمعالجة النفسية " لوري غوتليب" إثر إنفصالها عن حبيبها ، تبحث عن معالج نفسي لكي يُمكنها من تجاوز أزمة الانفصال وتستطيع الوقوف على قدميها مُجدداً. أسمعك تقول : اتمزحين ، مُعالجة نفسية تقصد معالج نفسي ؟. هذا ما كان. ، لقد كانت إنسانة قبل أي شيء وما الانفصال إلا مشكلة مُستجدة تطفو على السطح. وكان على أحدهم أن يساعدها في سبر أغوار نفسها. more
" ليس ثمة ما يرغب فيه المرء أكثر من تحرره من بلاء ، لكن ليس ثمة ما يخشاه أكثر من سلبه سنده"جايمس بالدوين من فترة طويلة وانا عندى رغبة انى أقرأ الكتاب ده بس كل مرة أحاول ابدأ فيه أتراجع بدون ماافتحه وفي نفس الوقت رغبتي انى اقراه قوية لحد ماقررت اشتريه عشان أجبر نفسى ان ابدأ فيه . وخصوصا أن تقريبا كل التقييمات اللى شفتها عن الكتاب عالية ومشجعة لكن . هل كان تجربة سيئة ؟ لأهل لقيت اللى انا عايزاه ومتوقعاه منه ؟ لأ برضههل ندمت انى قرأته او اشتريته ؟ ثالث لأ هل حسيت بالملل معاه خاصة ان الكتاب كبير ؟ برضه في الغالبية لأ لان اسلوب الكتاب وطريقة صياغته حلوة . فكان اقرب من انى بقرأ حكايات ومواقف واسلوبه سلس وبسيط فمكانش ممل. هل استفدت من الكتاب ويخلينى مثلا أفكر بسببه انى اتكلم مع معالج نفسي في يوم من الايام ؟ ممكن اقول لأ كمان مرة 😂 وانا غلط طبعا والمفترض أننا نلجأ للعلاج النفسي لما نكون محتاجينه ونتعامل معاه زى اى مرض عضوى رغم انه للأسف لحد دلوقتي ناس كتير بتعتبره وصمة عار ومبنعترفش بيه وبنقلل من قيمته برغم انه في الغالب قادر يقلب ويدمر حياتنا اكتر من المرض العضوى اللى صاحبه بيلاقي دعم وتفهم من اللى حواليه . more
Fascinating. This book has generated a huge amount of buzz and rightly so. I was surprised to see myself mentioned—that was an odd experience. more
Se você leu o título do livro e achou que essa é mais uma obra que segue aquela antiga fórmula de autoajuda, com diversos exemplos e repetidas frases de efeito, você está totalmente enganado. A psicoterapeuta norte-americana conseguiu criar um fenômeno de vendas ao trazer para o leitor a sua experiência real com conflitos e angústias universais do ser humano, tanto do ponto de vista do psicoterapeuta, como daquele que senta do outro lado do divã, o paciente. Como a própria autora confessa, “de todas as minhas credenciais como terapeuta, a mais significativa é eu ser membro de carteirinha da raça humana”. Talvez, uma das características que mais conseguem aproximar o leitor da narrativa é a humanidade no relato de Lori. A autora nos conta a história de quatro pacientes, com diferentes questões que os afligem, e a sua própria experiência diante de cenários de vulnerabilidade e desamparo. more
I’ve marked so many phrases, ideas and paragraphs throughout the book that inspired me and ignited deeper curiosity towards certain habits, childhood memories and experiences I’ve had. This book was a beautiful combination of extremely human stories and what felt like my own therapy session. So happy I reached for this one. Highly recommend. more