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In a market overflowing with a variety of self-help gurus, Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving and Listening, a book by family therapist and quadriplegic Dr. Dan Gottlieb, promises to be different. “You have to love a self-help book that extols doing nothing,” Publishers Weekly wrote about the book, which was released in March 2008. “The truth is," says Gottlieb, "if we become comfortable with who we are rather than who we think we should be, then we will be less insecure.”

After receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees from Temple University, Gottlieb struck out into his own practice in 1969. Ten years later, he was involved in a near-fatal automobile accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Immediately following the accident, Gottlieb felt his body had betrayed him, but has now come to be deeply appreciative of its heroism instead.

“I care for my body like it is a fragile lover that I adore," Gottlieb says. “My body has served me nobly; it has worked very hard, way above and beyond.”

Advances in the medical field mean that Gottlieb is a member of the first generation with quadriplegia who will survive into their late 50s. So his 29 years living as a paraplegic have given Gottlieb time to come to terms with how his body changed and now functions. In fact, he says he’s learned not to think antagonistically about that body, despite his sometimes precarious health. True to form, in Learning from the Heart, Gottlieb manages to approach the issue without seeming like he’s looking for pity.

Instead Gottlieb favors short anecdotal chapters rich in wisdom, generously revealing and deeply personal, and resonating with universal truths. His distinctive voice and format are consistent throughout Learning from the Heart as they are through all of the media he uses to spread his messages.

Today, as a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the author of Letters to Sam (addressed to his autistic grandson), Gottlieb has become somewhat of an expert in self-acceptance. As a therapist, he frequently counsels people who believe that changing themselves or their circumstances is the key to happiness. Gottlieb disagrees.

In Learning from the Heart, Gottlieb strives to help others undermine the stressful modern day lifestyle that he believes is chipping away at happiness, fulfillment and a sense of well-being. In the same warm, compassionate and funny way he hosts Philadelphia’s WHYY-FM’s weekly public radio program, “Voices in the Family,” he delivers simple but effective advice on how to reclaim a sense of “being human.”

Gottlieb’s stories are consistently great—honest and moving. His words paint colorful pictures to accompany the lessons he teaches and the people he writes about come across as real and full. 

In everything he does, Gottlieb’s simple, yet smart approach to life comes through: "We are not important as individuals,” he says. “And everything we say and do counts."

Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving and Listening was published in March 2008 by Sterling Publishing. The book is available in hardcover format and is 176 pages.