When Sur­geon Gen­er­al Vivek Murthy sound­ed the alarm that lone­li­ness ​“rep­re­sents an urgent pub­lic health con­cern” — exac­er­bat­ed by social media overuse, the resid­ual effects of the pan­dem­ic, and the lack of mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships — trust­ed ther­a­pist Dr. Ruth K. Wes­t­heimer knew that her unique per­spec­tive and exper­tise could help. Long beloved for break­ing stig­mas around sex­u­al prob­lems, Dr. Ruth made it her mis­sion to help indi­vid­u­als break free from the bonds of hope­less­ness and iso­la­tion. With 100 con­crete and inno­v­a­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties that can be put to use imme­di­ate­ly, The Joy of Con­nec­tions isn’t only an action-ori­ent­ed guide­book on over­com­ing lone­li­ness from one of the most well-respect­ed ther­a­pists of our time; it’s also the vital kick in the pants we all need in order to start seek­ing — and find­ing — deep and last­ing human connections.

Alli­son Gilbert is an Emmy Award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and one of the most influ­en­tial writ­ers and speak­ers on how to find the inner resources to over­come life’s biggest chal­lenges. Through research and lived expe­ri­ence, Alli­son helps audi­ences trans­form grief and loss, man­age care­giv­ing and chron­ic ill­ness, and find con­nec­tion amid the grow­ing pub­lic health cri­sis of social iso­la­tion and lone­li­ness. She is co-author of Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s final book, The Joy of Con­nec­tions: 100 Ways to Beat Lone­li­ness and Live a Hap­pi­er and More Mean­ing­ful Life. Alli­son writes reg­u­lar­ly for The New York Times, has been inter­viewed on the Today show, Good Morn­ing Amer­i­ca, and NPR, has pre­sent­ed hun­dreds of talks to audi­ences at Ama­zon, Google, Hearst, Kri­palu Cen­ter for Yoga & Health, and many oth­er well­ness retreat cen­ters, com­pa­nies, and orga­ni­za­tions. Alli­son is the author of numer­ous books and hosts ​“Mak­ing Con­nec­tions,” a month­ly con­ver­sa­tion series with Reimag­ine on over­com­ing lone­li­ness, and pre­vi­ous­ly host­ed ​“Passed and Present,” named after her beloved book, about death and main­tain­ing fam­i­ly bonds. Alli­son lives in New York with her family. 

Lori Got­tlieb is a psy­chother­a­pist and New York Times best­selling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Some­one, which has sold over two mil­lion copies and is cur­rent­ly being adapt­ed as a tele­vi­sion series star­ring Kris­ten Bell. In addi­tion to her clin­i­cal prac­tice, she is co-host of the pop­u­lar ​“Dear Ther­a­pists” pod­cast and writes The Atlantic​’s ​“Dear Ther­a­pist” advice col­umn. She is a sought-after expert in media such as The Today Show, Good Morn­ing Amer­i­ca, CBS This Morn­ing, CNN, and NPR’s ​“Fresh Air” and her 2019 TED Talk was one of the Top 10 Most Watched of the Year. She is the cre­ator of the Maybe You Should Talk To Some­one Work­book: A Toolk­it for Edit­ing Your Sto­ry and Chang­ing Your Life and the Maybe You Should Talk To Some­one Jour­nal: 52 Week­ly Ses­sions to Trans­form Your Life. 

You can pur­chase The Joy of Con­nec­tions here. You can pur­chase Maybe You Should Talk to Some­one here. 

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