The Tools

Starred review from April 9, 2012
With deceptively potent visualization exercises, psychiatrist Stutz and psychotherapist Michels promote a rapid and streamlined method of self-improvement. Michels, known for his work with prominent entertainment industry clients, teaches readers to end procrastination and negativity by tapping into higher forces. Stutz, who originally developed the Tools, backtracks to explain how and why they originated. Though simple, the authors’ techniques are designed to access intense intrapersonal areas. The “Inner Authority” tool, for example, involves imagining the Jungian Shadow to reach greater self-expression. Though many of the tools are explained by addressing a creative problem, readers in any field are likely to feel empowered because of their ease of use. Easy but not shallow, the work of Michels and Stutz also has a transcendent component. The authors foresee a time when “psychotherapy... will become a spiritual endeavor”; exercises are said to work thanks to the generosity of the universe. The clear, user-friendly approach plus a belief that “the power of higher forces is absolutely real” is a winning combination. Here is the rare self-help book that doesn’t end with the self.

May 15, 2012
In their debut, Stutz and Michels provide a blueprint to actively change your life. Their tools are focused on solving problems rather than obsessing over their causes. Told mostly through Michels' voice, the book outlines a process developed by Stutz in his psychotherapy practice. He found that while therapy elicits valuable memories, emotions and insights, people needed tools powerful enough to bring immediate relief and to connect to life-changing forces. The authors offer five tools to begin change. The first, the Reversal of Desire, helps you break out of your comfort zone, embrace pain and move past it. The second, Active Love, is used when your anger traps you in a maze of negativity. It involves creating and sending out love. The third tool, Inner Authority, asks you to embrace and celebrate your inner shadow, freeing your natural self rather than cloistering it in insecurity. When filled with worry, anxiety and negativity, Grateful Flow, the fourth tool, grounds you in the present and connects you with the ultimate positive force in the universe. The final tool, Jeopardy, provides the willpower to stay on track. These prescriptive tools ultimately invoke higher forces and give rise to spiritual evolution. In the final chapter, the authors help readers integrate the five tools to bring higher forces to bear on a personal problem and, by extension, society as a whole. Illustrated with stick figures and diagrams, the tools are adapted from Jungian psychology but go a step further. Stutz and Michels see problems as opportunities to enter a world of untapped spiritual potential. A thought-provoking book with a strong prescription to turn your life around--not for armchair self-help enthusiasts.

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January 1, 2012

Frustrated with how long standard therapy takes--the complaint of plenty of patients, too--psychotherapist Michels turned to Stutz, a psychiatrist who had devised a set of tools aimed at bringing about quick, decisive change. The results have been good enough to bring the authors a New Yorker profile, and because their Los Angeles-based practices bring celebrity patients, testimonials are promised that will surely drive readership. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.