In Dr. Ruth’s final book, the icon­ic ther­a­pist offers an urgent guide to com­bat­ing lone­li­ness with 100 ways to increase con­nec­tiv­i­ty right now, based on insights from her life sto­ry and her unpar­al­leled career.

​“Dr. Ruth’s strate­gies are essen­tial for build­ing the kinds of bonds that will reduce lone­li­ness and trans­form lives.” — Gretchen Rubin, #1 New York Times best­selling author of The Hap­pi­ness Project

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.

We are social ani­mals. We have a shared desire to con­nect and cre­ate last­ing rela­tion­ships with the peo­ple around us. But the heav­i­ness of lone­li­ness can make this feel impos­si­ble. Dr. Ruth, with Emmy Award – win­ning jour­nal­ist Alli­son Gilbert and long­time col­lab­o­ra­tor Pierre Lehu, tack­les the sub­ject with com­pas­sion and her trade­mark no-non­sense approach. She pro­vides prac­ti­cal and cre­ative strate­gies for find­ing friends, com­mu­ni­ty, and inti­ma­cy. And it’s anchored by Dr. Ruth’s own sto­ry, from the hor­rif­ic lone­li­ness of los­ing her fam­i­ly in the Holo­caust to liv­ing in an orphan­age to rebuild­ing her life in Amer­i­ca and even­tu­al­ly becom­ing a world-renowned sex ther­a­pist.

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.