On the outside there is nothing really wrong with her life. On the inside there is nothing really right with it. Lorna Martin, a cynical and stoic Scot, is a thirty-something woman with a dream job as a journalist with the London-based Observer newspaper, great friends and perfect health. But underneath the cheery façade, all is not well.

Embroiled in a disastrous relationship, and wondering why she simultaneously longs for yet fears commitment, she decides it is time to take a long hard look at herself.

Having always regarded therapy as an outrageous con - a fraud designed for people to whine about their weight/self-esteem/alcohol/commitment problem while blaming their absent father and/or overly critical mother - this is done with some trepidation. All her life, she’d been a therapy sceptic. If you had a problem, she believed, you just dealt with it. Immerse yourself in work or in a good book. Get drunk. Listen to ABBA. Take Prozac. Discuss it with your friends or family. The idea of paying someone – a stranger - simply to talk, seemed absurd.

But a week before her 35th birthday, and feeling that the chaos in her life is spiralling out of control, she realises she has no more ‘self-soothing strategies’ left. As a final resort, she gets on the couch and embarks on the strangest journey of her life, talking, listening and learning more than she ever expected. Along the way, she even catches sight of the holy grail of true love.

Girl on the Couch/Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a warm, funny, entertaining journey of self-discovery. It will appeal to many modern women (and men) who may ‘have it all’ on the outside, but wonder why they don’t feel happy and content on the inside.