Is it really you?

Therapy. To go or not to go will be the question after reading Who You Were Meant To Be, a book by Lindsay C. Gibson, Psy. D., about finding or recovering your life's purpose. Gibson, a licensed clinical psychologist, sets out to introduce readers to their real selves by systematically helping them to peel away layers of guilt, fear, frustration, loyalties, and other oppressive factors.

Through her patients' stories, Gibson illustrates many of the problems adults encounter in the quest to live happy and fulfilled lives. "They suffered because they were sick of living an unfulfilling life, but had no idea how to live any differently," she writes. "Not knowing who they were meant to be, they had no way of knowing what would make them truly happy."

Gibson offers several psychological tools such as a soul-searching checklist and several true or false questions to help readers evaluate why happiness may be eluding them. Finding a quick fix to your problems in the 210 pages and 12 chapters of this book, however, is doubtful. The book fails to give in-depth solutions to these problems. In fact, each page subtly implies that the only real way to successfully defeat your demons is to go to therapy.

Still, if you seek to gain a better understanding of where bouts of depression and feelings of unfulfillment in our careers, families and social lives come from, Who You Were Meant To Be may be worth lying on your own couch to read.

Who You Were Meant To Be: A Guide to Finding or Recovering Your Life's Purpose by Lindsay C. Gibson, Psy. D. (New Horizon Press, $15.95)