At a glance
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who found the original Maybe You Should Talk to Someone memoir deeply resonant and want a structured, self-directed way to apply its therapeutic frameworks and patient case studies to their own lives.
Worth it if
You've read the memoir, connected with the stories of John, Julie, Charlotte, and Rita, and are looking for a concrete, actionable toolkit — combining writing prompts, exercises, and reflective concepts — to turn those insights into personal self-examination.
Skip if
You haven't read the original memoir, since the workbook's patient-based examples will carry less emotional weight without that narrative context, or if you're seeking a clinical resource or a substitute for professional mental health support.
What readers & critics say
Critical reception centres on the source memoir rather than the workbook itself: Kirkus Reviews gave the memoir a starred review and called it "irresistibly addictive," praising Gottlieb's "great empathy and compassion" and her "smooth, conversational tone and frank honesty." According to Wikipedia, the memoir was also reviewed by Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Time, New Statesman, and Slate, indicating broad mainstream critical attention for the work on which this companion is built.
“With great empathy and compassion, Gottlieb chronicles the many problems facing [her patients].”
— Kirkus Reviews“The process of psychotherapy has rarely been so thoroughly deconstructed. Gottlieb tells these stories with honesty and wit.”
— Stanford Magazine“Maybe You Should Talk to Someone was one of my best books of 2021. It made such an impact on me.”
— The Wordy Habitat“Gottlieb does a fine job of pulling back the curtain and letting readers see the inner workings of psychotherapy and the psychotherapist's mind.”
— Dr. Natalie ChristineLook inside the book
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- Is it worth reading?
- For readers who connected deeply with Gottlieb's memoir and wanted a structured way to apply its lessons, the workbook offers a concrete next step — combining writing prompts, exercises, and therapeutic concepts into a single self-directed toolkit rooted in real patient cases. Its creation was a direct response to documented reader demand: as Gottlieb's site notes, readers of the memoir 'highlighted and underlined page after page' and asked for a guide as transformative as the book itself. The key caveat is that its practical effectiveness depends entirely on the individual reader's engagement — this is a functional workbook, and its value can only be fully assessed through hands-on use. Those who haven't read the memoir may also find the references to John, Julie, Charlotte, and Rita less grounding without the full emotional context behind them.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: The Workbook will find strong company in the curated titles featured below. The Anxiety and Worry Workbook: The Cognitive Behavioral Solution by David A. Clark and Aaron T. Beck offers a similarly structured, exercise-based approach to psychological self-help, this time rooted in CBT methodology. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown explores vulnerability and shame with the same blend of storytelling and psychological insight that made Gottlieb's memoir resonate so widely. For readers interested in narrative reframing through creative practice, The Artist's Way: 30th Anniversary Edition by Julia Cameron is a classic structured workbook format built around self-discovery exercises. The Mindful Way through Depression by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn rounds out the list for those seeking a clinically grounded, reflective self-help approach.
- Who should read this?
- The workbook is squarely aimed at readers who connected deeply with Gottlieb's memoir and want a structured way to apply its therapeutic lessons to their own lives. It is designed for general readers interested in self-reflection and personal growth — not as a clinical tool for therapists or a replacement for professional mental health support. Given that the source memoir earned broad praise for its accessibility, including Kirkus's note that readers could 'identify with the author as both a mid-40s single mother and a perceptive, often humorous psychotherapist,' the workbook is positioned to reach a wide audience drawn to the intersection of storytelling and psychological insight. It is particularly well-suited to those who, as Gottlieb's site notes, found themselves 'highlighting and underlining page after page' of the memoir and wanted a more actionable companion.
- About Lori Gottlieb
- Lori Gottlieb is an American writer and psychotherapist.
- What are the main themes?
- The workbook's central theme is the therapeutic concept of narrative identity — the idea that people carry internal stories about themselves and their lives that shape their behavior and wellbeing, and that those narratives can be examined and consciously revised. Anchored in the real patient cases of John, Julie, Charlotte, and Rita from the original memoir, it explores themes of self-examination, personal accountability, vulnerability, and the possibility of meaningful change. It also implicitly engages with the nature of therapy itself — making the therapeutic process accessible and self-directed for readers who may never sit across from a professional therapist.
- How does this compare to the original memoir?
- The memoir, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed, is a narrative work — Kirkus Reviews praised it as 'irresistibly addictive' and 'a vivacious portrait of a therapist from both sides of the couch,' with a 'smooth, conversational tone and frank honesty' designed to let readers 'eavesdrop' on genuine human crises with humor and compassion. The workbook, by contrast, is not designed to be read passively but worked through actively: it takes the same patient cases and therapeutic frameworks from the memoir and converts them into writing prompts, exercises, and structured self-reflection tools. Where the memoir delivers insight through storytelling, the workbook asks readers to generate their own insights by applying those frameworks to their personal lives.
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Content to know about
Skip if you want a self-contained self-help resource with no dependency on a prior memoir's characters or narrative context
Editorial Review
Published by PESI Publishing in November 2021, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: The Workbook is Lori Gottlieb's structured companion to her New York Times bestselling memoir, designed to guide readers through the therapeutic concept of examining and revising their personal narratives — drawing directly on the patients and frameworks from the original book to offer exercises, writing prompts, and self-reflection tools.
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