Fire Your Shrink!: Do-It-Yourself Strategies for Changing Your Life and Everyone in It [Hardcover]

I also have Michelle's book for getting your man to do what you want. This audiocassette had most of the same things in it - 'cept it wasn't geared toward just changing men.

I like her ideas and have used a few of them myself successfully. However, the beginning of this audiocassette is WAY too long. It's basically a commercial for her method of helping people - which sounds great - but I didn't buy this book-on-tape to hear a commercial! I wanted her to get to the point and tell me how to do this stuff.

I suggest saving your money and not buying the audiocassette since you will have to listen again and again to the commercial. Having the book is better because you can flip thru to just the information you want/need at the time.

The book has a 'commercial' in the beginning too, but you don't have to read that part any more than just the first time. With an audiocassette, if you want to listen to the ideas again, you have to listen to the commercial again.

Books-on-tape are GREAT, but in this case, she takes too long to get to the point. The book with pages to flip thru is much better.

This book has an inherent appeal, I must admit. Weiner-Davis' premise, that you really can be your own best agent for postivie personal change, speaks to our individualistic pride. Well and good, we probably *have* become a nation of overly dependent emotional basket-cases.

The problem here is that Weiner-Davis swings way -- way way over -- to the other side of the pendulum. She portrays virtually all personal problems, from addiction to failing marriages, as solvable by the individual. Some of her suggestions are just absurdly overdrawn -- like her mention of the depressed person who decided to go shopping and met someone at the mall who helped her out of her depression. Just change your patterns, Weiner-Davis, suggests, and the solution will appear as if by magic.

This book might be useful for those who can stand a little more personal control over their own lives. I have nothing against that goal. What does concern me, though, is that the overly simplistic, "quick fix" mentality which prevades throughout this book can raise false hopes for people who really do need help from sources outside themselves. In these cases, "Fire Your Shrink" may be setting up certain people for a very, very hard fall after tottering briefly at a precipice of false hope.

...and no, I am NOT a psychologist or therapist of any sort... just someone who likes to see more realistic suggestions!

I bought this book years ago, after a really awful relationship sent me on a homework spree. After reading a slew of the other, more usual books, my reading path lead me to this - the most useful book ever for improving ANY relationship - parental, spousal, work - or even (and especially) your relationship with yourself.

Based on positive-seeking, solution-focused therapy, the author offers techniques and exercises to discover, ignite, and grow the positive potential in yourself and - by extension - others. Change yourself, and everyone who interacts with you will change too, as they react in new ways to your new choices and actions.

Most people are used to a habit of noticing what's wrong and complaining about it. To the author, this is the first step - noticing. But besides noticing what's wrong, you also need to start practicing noticing what's right, and then encourage and reward that - nurturing more desired behavior. (This is a lot like training animals - rewarding or praising good behavior). You can always delve into the "why's" later, but first, an improved daily interaction helps create a setting where why's can later be explored in a calmer way.

The author also has a website with a free message board, where you can safely vent or ask advice, away from your immediate situation. I highly recommend both this book and her message board.

Using this book and her techniques has empowered me to deal with very difficult people and situations, and made it easier for me to steer these situations into more positive and cheerful realities.