Next Therapist Please

There is a freshness and novelty to this book, which will keep you turning the pages and wanting more.

Reader's Favorite

A winner of the Pinnacle Achievement Awardand the Irwin Award for Best Romantic Comedy, "Next Therapist Please" will delight romantic comedy fans, but it's also been praised as an insightful contemporary fiction novel that addresses mental health and the issues and challenges the mentally ill face every day.

Janie Weiss is a woman of many talents. A gifted visual artist, she shakes and stirs cocktails like nobody else. But when it comes to living an anxious free life, Janie turns into a disaster. She obsesses over every detail of her clothing, prays to find a parking space she feels 'comfortable' with, and reads to escape the here and now. Blessed with anxiety, depression, and OCD, she hops from one therapist to the next in search of managing her mental illness to thrive in life, and from one gallery opening reception to another to gain representation.

At her first group show, Janie runs into Dr. Bob, an ex-therapist whom she befriends. Janie starts to fall for Dr. Rob, but he is only intent on helping Janie move on from a personal tragedy. Or so it seems in the beginning. Janie responds to Dr. Rob's confusing interest in her by turning to Internet dating, spending time with her handy handyman, Peter, and eating too many Balboa Bars.

From Janie's cottage on Balboa Island to Dr. Rob's home in Palm Springs, Janie's adventures help strengthen her resolve to bring love and joy into her life again. Her reflections on her past six therapists reveal how her mental health challenges have shaped her and hindered her at times. Will Janie get lucky at finding love and peace, or is she destined to experience an HEA only in her favorite romcoms?

Author Laurie Finkelstein uses humor in this light breezy romantic comedy to shed light on the sensitive and serious subject of mental health. Semi-autobiographical, the ways Janie's mental illnesses manifest in her are fashioned after Laurie's life experience with these biological brain disorders, raising a special needs child, and six of her therapists. She weaves real life events, including paraphrased therapy sessions into a fictional storyline with fictional characters into a fun and enjoyable summer read. 

A small portion of this book's sales go to NAMI, The National Alliance on Mental Illness. Help Break the Stigma!