Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

3.7 (rounded up to 4) - very enjoyable, quick read! I want to read/listen to another book of hers (not available on Audible yet) so I glad I got to squeeze this one in!

“There's no hierarchy of pain. Suffering shouldn't be ranked, because pain is not a contest.”

Memoir that reads like a novel. Honest, insightful, compassionate, thought-provoking. Def would recommend.

Gosh, what a lovely book. I imagine this is one that will be even better the second time through. The narrator of the audio book was wonderful.

Engaging and highly readable this should appeal to anyone, but was especially wonderful to read as a therapist.
The best book to give to someone if they're wondering what therapy is like. Made me chuckle and tear up, and found me genuinely engrossed.

Unsure if I would have appreciated this book as much had I read it 6 months ago. But I sure do appreciate it now.

Warm, funny, humane, and now I feel like I'm basically a licensed psychotherapist myself. I loved this. We follow an LA therapist and a handful of her patients through their therapy sessions/journey and just, like, LIFE, man. I cried, I laughed, I also laugh-cried with vicarious joy. Really glorious. This opened my heart and my mind in the same way Kristen Neff's Self-Compassion showed me that there are ways to human better.

3.75

The obscene amount of time it took for me to read this does not reflect the quality here. I've been a terrible slump. Here's to maybe finding my way out!

Lori feels like she becomes your friend through this book. Once I finally buckled down to read it, I whizzed through. It's an easy read but ultimately is equal parts a peak behind the curtain as well as a ode to the difficulties and joy of being alive. There's many beautiful, devastating, achingly human stories in here.

Al principio, me costó engancharme con el libro porque el non-fiction no es lo mío. Además, los pacientes entrando y saliendo del escenario como actores en una obra de teatro me distraían tantito. Sin embargo, los temas densos tocaron fibra sensible, así que me tomé mi tiempo para leerlo, disfrutarlo y agradecer que alguien diera explicaciones lógicas a tanto desvarío emocional.

I loved this book. I loved it so much I already know I'm going to read it again, and cross-reference some quotes to my therapist. I loved Lori's personal stories as well as those of her clients and the ways they influenced each other. This book feels very humanist to me. Highly recommend.

I delayed reading this, but it exceeded my expectations. Interesting narratives and practical life advice. Makes you want to go to therapy.

I'm not used to reading books of this type, but this was a good start to nonfiction books. The author is in charge of reviewing her life so that each story leaves you curious about what can happen in each encounter. The one I consider as the second main character, Wendell, leaves you intrigued about the various topics his patient aka the author of the book, deals with.

De bonnes choses ressortent de ce livre : les enseignements sont pertinents et les personnages attachants. Toutefois, il tire sur la longueur et le finir ressemble à une corvée, dommage.

Soy estudiante de psicología y me ha gustado bastante este libro. Lo único malo es que creo que iba, en algunos momento, algo lento pero por el resto muy bien.

Dang. This is an emotional ride. Maybe the cover image should have tipped me off.

I am fascinated by complexities of human behavior and emotion, so this book was right up my alley. Gottlieb's story shows how therapists are not immune from needing help to deal with life's challenges, while also depicting how meaningful the relationship is between therapist and client. Her stories are deeply impactful, and the therapeutic theories, strategies, and insights woven throughout were both interesting and helpful. Loved it!

Oh man, this book. This was an emotional wrecking ball. I lost count of how many times I've cried and teared up while reading this book, and any book that makes me confront these emotions and thoughts automatically gets 5 stars.

When I first picked up the book, I almost DNFed within the first few chapters because it seemed a little flippant and superficial. We have Lori talking about a client who is constantly complaining about how everyone around him is an asshole, and then Lori herself venting about what a sociopathic asshole her ex-boyfriend is. It all felt a little mundane and almost like high school drama. As the book progresses, however, my impression of it changed dramatically. More and more stories are revealed about not just the clients that Lori sees, but also about Lori herself. We see the rawness of her clients in her practice, and herself when she goes for her therapy sessions. I appreciate the structure and the pacing of the book, as if we are also put in Lori's position, being both therapist and therapy client at the same time to Lori. We hear Lori at first like a new patient, barging in with an immediate and seemingly superficial problem (reeling from the anger of a breakup), but then as the book goes on, we get to know her better and understand how it stems from much deeper fears and anxieties that many of us can very much identify and relate to.

All the stories of the clients talked about in this book touched me in some way or other and made me cry, but it was especially John, Julia, Rita, and Lori's own story that hit the hardest. By the last few chapters of the book, I again felt like DNFing for a completely different reason: I felt exhausted that it was making me confront so many of my own fears and anxieties and hitting so many raw spots. I reminded myself, however, that this is the discomfort that therapy is supposed to make you feel, and confronting them will eventually help me deal with it better. That's not to say that I think this book is a replacement for therapy, of course, but it might make give you some introspect into some deeply hidden raw spots that you have been running away from for so long that you barely realise it's still there anymore, and which may then serve you to bring to therapy in the future.

So overall, I highly recommend this book (and therapy) to just about everyone. It does deal with many triggering topics which can be hard to deal with for a lot of people, but I think that that is the whole point of it. This book is likely to make you feel uncomfortable, pensive, and even pained, but it also offers some hope and commiseration - you're not the only person who deals with these fears, and these are stories of people and how they've pieced themselves together after some truly horrible experiences.

must read <3

Does Lori Gottleib have any ugly patients? Are any of them losers, loners, or just plain weird? Are any of her patients not white? Are any of them poor? Because I truly enjoyed this book, but throughout I couldn't help but feel that I'm the target audience, and maybe it's limited beyond that context. Such is the danger of therapy, however well intentioned, if it does not engage with the cases where the patient's environment has more to do with their behavior than their internal landscape. Gottleib, being a therapist for affluent white people in L.A., has little to say about the most burning questions in modern therapy (beyond a requisite hand-wave at digital wellbeing, which amounts to a typical Gen X “phones bad”). Let's just say that when it comes to the depth of her social analysis, I can tell Gottleib wrote for The Atlantic.

But I'm being too harsh. Try as I might to put myself above it, the book taught me a lot I didn't know and prompted me to reflect on my own emotional life in a way I usually avoid (or at least water down). I found myself feeling plucked raw after certain passages, when the stories told hit a bit close to home. It made me wish I'd had a better experience in therapy and consider whether I'd gone at it with the right approach - I saw a lot of myself in John and Rita and even Gottleib herself, though the reflections weren't necessarily pleasant. And I have to respect the book for its educational merit, as Gottleib is careful to scatter the contents of Psychology 101 throughout the book. Some of her “stories” are clearly meant to illustrate certain general principles, which is a little corny, but I get it. It's not like the whole book is hand-holding. Like I said, a lot of it cuts deep - it feels honest and real in the way a good therapist would be.

Recommended for people trying to better understand themselves.
Also helps to realise the importance of therapy.

Wow. The stories were engrossing and just kept you wanting to know more with some helpful insights along the way.

Delicate and really, fun and sad. So good.

This was the right book at the right time, with lots of thoughts worth revisiting and remembering.

Just couldn't get into this audio book. My book club friends mostly liked this, although the ones who are active therapist thought it too technical in places.

For me, I was unable to relate to any of the characters. I also don't understand how the therapist can tolerate an abusive patient, it almost felt like she was just star-struck.

I do see how folks enjoyed the characters journey and improvements.

This book was fascinating and made me think about the therapist/patient relationship in a way I never had before. Lori's writing is funny, insightful and informative. Definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time.

4.5. Beautiful book that you wish you can read on and on. This is a book about the beautiful stories of healing a therapist's patients, as well as her own self-discovery and healing with her own therapist, as well as the lessons about humanity and ourselves. I've personally learnt many things that I myself can apply to my life. One of those books I will recommend to people!

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read ⬅️⬅️⬅️
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

My favorite book so far this year.