"Maybe you should talk to someone" - A Book Recomendation

Do you ever wonder about your therapist's life? You turn up to each session to talk about the difficulties and the challenges that you're facing and you form an intimate relationship with this other person; yet you know little about them as a private person...and rightly so - It is the nature of the therapeutic relationship after all, that they're there to help you and not to talk about their own stuff in your therapy.

But do you ever wonder if they've got their own stuff, or does it seem to you that your therapist must, surely, be totally sorted and have no issues at all...negotiating their way through life, following perfectly for themselves all the sage advice, skills and tools that they are imparting to you.

It's not uncommon for clients to tell me that they assume that I don't have any issues or don't experience any of the problems that they might be experiencing. I have even had one client tell me that they thought I must have a perfect life, and colleagues have told me that they've had similar comments from their own clients. Actually therapists are just as human and just as flawed as anyone else!

Anxiety - check

Stress - check

Low mood - check

Lori Gottlieb is an author but she's also a therapist and her book gives a unique insight into what goes on behind the closed doors of the therapy room; significantly she is often speaking about her own therapy with her own therapist. Yes that's right therapists themselves go to therapy and have their own therapists! So, if you have ever wondered about the life of your therapist outside of the therapy room, you will find this to be a very enlightening and thoroughly entertaining read. You will also probably pick up titbits of sage advice as the author reflects on the life and loves of her clients and herself.

Have you read the book? If so, let me know in the comments below what you thought of it.