What's Right with You: Debunking Dysfunction and Changing Your Life

Champion book. Better than 70% of therapists for help with any and every issue/problem/diagnosis. Believe what this book tells you!

== THERAPY HAS BEEN NEGLECTING CLIENTS == Barry Duncan is co-author of several two books that book explain how therapy has for too long been been neglecting, ignoring, and depersonalizing clients. Therapists have done this by their over-emphasis on methods and techniques, by following the medical model, by their emphasis on pathology, by hegemony of biological approaches, and so on. Duncan's books describe how four decades of outcome research have shown that there are four main factors of change, being: 1)Client factors (percentage contribution to positive outcome: 40%). 2) Relationship factors (percentage contribution: 30%), 3) Hope and expectancy (percentage contribution: 15%), 4) Model and technique (percentage contribution: 15%). In other words: 1) Thoughts, ideas, actions, initiatives, traits of clients are the most important predictor of therapy success! 2)Next to what the client brings to therapy, the client's perception of the therapeutic relationship is responsible for most of the gains resulting from the therapy. 3) Models and techniques are much less important than generally thought. == PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THERAPISTS (AND COACHES)== This book aims to describe practically how therapists can use this knowledge. It does this by providing a transaparant step by step approach. The book contains many clear examples and a useful tool to measure progress. Further, the appendix contains many useful excersizes. == CONCLUSION AND REFERENCES TO OTHER GOOD BOOKS == This is a good book. It is recommendable both for 'traditional' therapists looking for change and for people already familiar with Duncan's work. I like that Duncan has explicitly mentioned the solutino-focused approach to therapy. In fact, I think he could have elaborated more on this. My belief is that solution-focused brief therapy is THE way to elicit the 4 factors that make therapy effective. So, if you are interested in What's right with you maybe you should also look at books like: interviewing for solutions (DeJong & Berg), Keys to Solutions in Brief Therapy (Steve de Shazer, 1985), Tales of Solutions (Berg & Dolan, 2001) and Becoming Solution-Focused In Brief Therapy (Walter & Peller, 1992). Coert Visser, http://www.m-cc.nl/solutionfocusedchange.htm

From the co-author of "The Heroic Client", Duncan masterfully translates the science of change from "what works in therapy" to self-change. However, unlike many popular self-help books which seem strong on opinion and weak on research, "What's Right With You" is written from a strong foundation of 50 years of clinical research on how people change. In the first chapter, Duncan lays the empirical groundwork for the rest of the book by pointing to the fact that change is inevitable and primarily occurs through one's own resources. In chapter two, he uses this empirical fact to springboard the reader into discovering their "heroic self". Thus, Duncan validates the human condition and one's struggles to overcome life's certain challenges and problems - thereby countering the powerful messages in our culture which purport that we are basically "dysfunctional" or "sick". Most importantly, he also introduces the reader to a validated tool which measures baseline distress and tracks progress along the way. The third chapter takes what research tells us about the power of the therapist-client relationship and adopts it to helping the reader recruit a change partner. Again, Duncan gives the reader another practical tool to measure the value of that helping relationship. In chapter four, Duncan focuses the reader on finding their own unique path to change - adhering to the scientific literature that change is a highly individualized process. In chapters five and six, the author introduces two very flexible change strategies, that are not based in a traditional "skill-deficit paradigm" and which can be universally applied to just about any human problem or dilemma. Moreover, Duncan gives the reader an insiders view of therapy from the perspective of these non-traditional approaches. Duncan's final chapter concludes with the powerful message that it is critical to always evaluate one's efforts at change and make adjustments as needed using the feedback tool introduced in the beginning of the book. Finally the author offers an added bonus - a web site for continued self-empowerment and three wonderful appendices which the reader should find beneficial. If you are tired with "business as usual" in mental health with it's emphasis on psychopathology, diagnoses, and "expert" therapists prescribing silver bullet cures and magic pills, this book offers a refreshing alternative to your journey towards change. "What's Right With You" is an empirically-based and strength-based approach to changing your life. Filled with powerful and practical ideas, coupled with Duncan's style of interspersing real case examples, this self-help book is indeed a testament to the author's unwavering belief in the power of the human spirit.

In truth, I should probably not be reviewing "What's Right with You" because I am a counselor and a teacher,as well as a longtime admirer of Dr. Duncan and his philosophy that the client is the true hero in the therapeutic relationship.The beautiful aspect about "What's Right with You" is that if everyone who is looking to make a change in their lives read this book, not only would I be out of a job as a therapist, but Dr. Duncan would be restricted to classroom seminars and sporadic appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Our clients would have no need of an outside counselor, because they would have learned to be their own counselor and new best friend ! As anyone who dealing with the mental health system has painfully learned, for the most part self-help books and counselors like to start with what's wrong with the client and explore previous "mistakes" or "errors in judgment", before demanding the acceptance of the latest and greatest new therapy. Not so with "What's Right with You"! In a manner reminiscent of a favorite uncle, adding to your wisdom through the recitation of personal experiences, Duncan debunks the myth of dysfunction, diagnosis,disorders and disease ("The Killer D's") and instead vibrantly validates the reader's personal experiences. He motivates the reader to discover his/her inner hero,placing special value on personal strengths and talents.Barry Duncan provides a detailed guide for the reader of how to both discover and purse his/her unique and individual theory of how change might come about.The book culminates the reader's personal journey of transformation, with insightful advice on how to implement a procedure for change, how to monitor that procedure for success and growth. "What's Right with You" also administers stellar advice on soliciting feedback regarding progress from significant others in the role of "change partners." While "What's Right with You" is well founded in scientifically validated research, it reads instead like a novel, with the plot of personal alteration taking on a life of itself as the book progresses. "What's Right with You" is worth the price of admission just for the magnificent chapter reiterating the regaling story of Dorothy in the classic "Wizard of Oz" and relating it to each of us in our personal journey of transformation. As I previously stated, I am a counselor and a teacher.The reason I give "What's Right with You" such a heartfelt endorsement is that I taught the book, chapter by chapter, to a group of folks recovering their mental health, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia. My clients enthusiastically embraced the teaching of Dr. Duncan, complemented my course as being crucial in their recovery, and have acquired the book for personal reading. It's nice that I enjoyed the book, but I consider it magnificent that my clients deemed the work to be essential. I cannot give a higher recommendation for "What's Right with You" than my clients'"professional" recommendation.

Dr. Duncan provides an extremely helpful toolkit for personal change in this book. I will recommend it to my coaching clients to help them make the personal changes that they want to make. He has the reader start with his/her own strengths, his/her own "heroic" self. This is a small but hugely significant difference from other self-help books which usually focus on what is "wrong" rather than what is right. This difference is much like the difference between reengineering and continuous improvement. Reengineering is like starting from stratch while continuous improvement is building on what is already there. Dr. Duncan takes more of the continous improvement paradigm. This seems a whole lot less overwhelming, but gets results that are sometimes even more significant. One of the best tools that this book provides for accomplishing personal change is the Progress Rating Scale (PRS), which enables the reader to measure where he is now and to monitor progress toward his goal. Personal change is hard--a recent study says that the odds are 9 to 1 against successful change. This is made obvious by all the by-pass patients who are back in the hospital again for a redo, by the growing obesity in this country. The stories of people who have used these techniques to accomplish personal change are not only illustrive of the techniques but also are quite motivating. If he/she can do it, so can I!