This month I have a great summer read for you—Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb.
This book was recently published just two months ago and is perfect for anyone who is interested in what therapy is like. The author, a therapist, shares stories of her therapeutic relationship with several of her clients and their treatment process and growth. She also describes what it was like for her to be a patient working through personal issues with her own therapist.
As a therapist, I loved it because Gottlieb does a great job explaining some of the basic terms in the mental health field as well as ethical issues faced by clinicians every day. Transference, projection, dual relationships, confidentiality, and so on, are all addressed in interesting ways. The personal stories shared about herself and her clients which are layered with meaning and discovery are the reason why I entered this field in the first place.
The book made me smile, it made me tear up, it made me happy I became a therapist. The memoir chapters about her journey to become a therapist later in life after pursuing a few other careers in an attempt to find the right “helping profession” resonated with me personally. If you have even a mild curiosity about what happens in the therapy room (and really, who doesn’t?) I think you will really enjoy this book!