This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" by Lori Gottlieb. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Are you looking for Maybe You Should Talk to Someone book club questions? What are some of the most noteworthy themes and ideas to discuss?
In Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb tells the story of her time in therapy, intertwining it with stories of her own patients. The following Maybe You Should Talk to Someone book club questions will help you explore the key themes from the book by reflecting on your own life experience.
Keep reading for Maybe You Should Talk to Someone book club questions.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: Book Club Questions
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is a memoir by psychotherapist and author Lori Gottlieb. She discusses a difficult time in her life following a sudden breakup with her long-term boyfriend. The incident upset her so badly that it drove her to seek therapy herself.
In discussing her own and her patients’ therapy experiences, she intertwines the philosophical narrative about human lifespan experience: how people got to where they are, the future they envision for themselves, and how they bridge the two together. The following Maybe You Should Talk to Someone book club questions will help you explore these themes by reflecting on these ideas in the context of your own life.
Reflect on Change
Think about a change you’d like to make in your own life. Consider the five stages of change Lori mentions in her memoir: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.
- What is the change you’d like to make?
- Which stage would you place yourself at in terms of making this change and why?
- What’s one way you could move on to the next stage of change?
Visualize the Future
Everyone has things they wish they could change about themselves or their lives. Some people spend their whole lives thinking about those changes, or trying to make them—and sometimes, they don’t even realize the progress they’ve made.
- What’s something about yourself that you wish you could change?
- What’s one thing you could do to start making that change?
- What will your life look like after that change is made; or, in other words, how will you know that you’ve done it?
- Thinking about how you’ll know when you’ve accomplished your goal, what progress have you already made (possibly without realizing it)?
“Welcome to Holland” is an essay about learning to appreciate what you have, even if it’s not what you wanted—like a traveler who was going to Italy but wound up in Holland. The truth is, almost everyone will find him or herself in “Holland” at some point; it’s very rare that someone’s life goes exactly as planned.
- Can you think of a time, recent or not, when your life didn’t go the way you’d planned or hoped?
- How did you respond to that situation?
- Can you think of one good thing, however insignificant it might seem, that came out of that unexpected situation? What is it?
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Lori Gottlieb's "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full Maybe You Should Talk to Someone summary :
- How a psychotherapist found herself in need of therapy
- How the therapist sees her own fears and feelings reflect in her patients
- Why you have to be ready to accept uncertainty if want to enjoy life
