*An O, The Oprah Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2019*

*An IndieNext Pick*

*A Book of the Month Club Selection*

*An Apple Best Book of the Month*

*A Publishers Marketplace Buzz Book*

*A Newsday, Apple iBooks, Thrive Global, Refinery29, and Book Riot Most Anticipated Book of 2019*

From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist’s world—where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).

Every year, nearly 30 million Americans sit on a therapist’s couch—and some of these patients are therapists. In her warm, wise, and boldly revealing new book, therapist and bestselling author Lori Gottlieb tells us that her most significant credential is not her license or rigorous training, but that she knows what it's like to be a person. With disarming candor, she welcomes us into her world, just as crisis has catapulted her into the office of a quirky but more seasoned psychologist named Wendell.
With humor and compassion, Gottlieb takes us on a journey from Wendell’s consultation room—where she struggles to uncover her blind spots—to her own, where her patients include a narcissistic Hollywood producer; a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness; a senior citizen threatening to end her life in a year if nothing changes; and a 20-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys, including one from the waiting room.
Along the way, Gottlieb examines the truths and fictions we humans tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between desire and need, emptiness and meaning, guilt and redemption, loneliness and love. “We grow in connection with others," Gottlieb writes, offering a deeply personal and yet universal tour of an elusive process, to quite possibly life-changing effect.