Maybe you should talk to someone

This book narrates a collection of real stories that brought together its author, American psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb, and a group of her patients. It does more than that; its content goes beyond the traditional framework where the reader finds a direct sermon or advice dictated by the stronger party who possesses experience and knowledge — the treating doctor — and the weaker, fragile party waiting for salvation — the patient. Here, the author deals with the matter from a different perspective. She recounts incidents that intersect with many aspects of her own, exchanging roles with the characters she interacts with. She explicitly states that she cannot understand what any patient is going through and only encourages them to talk about their problem to discover ways to treat it if she puts herself in their place, imagining what they are experiencing and its repercussions on them. This is the only way to understand and thus reach a solution that provides comfort. The book is titled "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a Psychotherapist, and Our Lives as It Unveils Them," and as the cover states, "It is exciting and astonishing at the same time, taking us behind the scenes of the world of psychotherapy." This work includes notes and reflections written by its author in a captivating storytelling style about diverse human cases that are likely to touch the reader personally because they relate to aspects shared by all humans — their thinking patterns, feelings, and behaviors. This work raises, as the author says, the question: "How do we change?" and answers: "We change according to our relationship with others." These relationships require mutual trust between the psychotherapist and the patients for the desired change to occur. The cases presented in the book confirm that anyone who wants to make a positive change in their life will inevitably suffer some pain and loss. They will face a set of obstacles that hinder their path toward happiness or success in various areas of life, and therefore they must move to change such a situation. Gottlieb states: "As a psychotherapist, I know a lot about pain, and about how pain is linked to loss. But I also know something that is difficult for others to understand: change and loss go hand in hand, and we cannot make any change without loss." The main message the author wants to convey is that anyone who wishes to change must first understand the nature of their problem, then talk about it with someone they trust — a psychotherapist — so that they can "examine it carefully." This process is not unilateral; it is a "balanced path" between both parties.