Book Review: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone - Highly Recommend

This was a June book club selection, but since I haven't been attending meetings (oh, despised Zoom!) I didn't worry about reading it on schedule. Good thing, since my library's hold list was long. I'm so glad I didn't let the hype keep me away. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, perhaps, because I have experience with therapy. During our marital separation we both went to individual appointments, a joint marital appointment, and I joined group therapy (if vulnerability doesn't frighten you, try group therapy - hardest emotional thing I've ever done).

Lori Gottlieb offers so much in this power-packed non-fiction book that reads like fiction. In Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed, Gottlieb opens her own veins and the veins of some of her patients (conglomerate portrayals so as to not pin-point one particular client and share their details). By the end of the book, I felt like I knew the author and her clients intimately. I cried for their pain and I laughed at their humor. I fell in love with the quirky individuals walking through her therapy door.

At once both educational (explanations of terms, outlines of theories, etc.) and entertaining (these are well-written stories of diverse lives), this book hones in on what it means to struggle with personality patterns, default perspectives, emotional baggage, and reactionary tendencies. I learned unfamiliar words (Ultracrepdarianism is the habit of giving opinions and advice on matters outside one's knowledge or competence. Hmm, know anyone like that? I do. Although, my husband says you could easily use the word "officious.") I appreciated the author's presentation of Prochaska's transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM). Since I would love to change my prodigal son's behavior, I paid special attention to her descriptions of pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance stages. A brief stint of therapy didn't convince him to change. I'd love to figure out how to lead him to do his own persuading about the desired changes.

As for the stories, they tugged on my heartstrings. I wept for the man who felt responsible for the accident that killed his son. I cheered for the suicidal woman to invest more in her life. Even the young alcoholic girl pulled me into her story. Moreover, the terminally ill client kept alive the desire to conquer individual hang-ups and make the most of every gifted day. If you've never set foot in a therapist's office, this has to be the best introduction to the process you could find and not nearly as intimidating as walking through the door and divulging your own intimate secrets and struggles. This book reminded me, again, that therapy is well-worth the difficult investment. Being human is fraught with conflict, but avenues for growth are always available.