Get a Grip: Your Two Week Mental Makeover [Hardcover]

Belisa Vranich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2009

Learn how to change your life for the better-in just two weeks!

Everyone has things about themselves they'd like to change, relationships they'd like to be smoother, or something in the past they'd like to be more at peace with, but it's not always easy to know what to do or how to get started. Now clinical psychologist and advice columnist Belisa Vranich helps you jumpstart transformation with a remarkable 14-day program of self-action and self-therapy. She motivates you to start your own serious self-examination, get out of your individual ruts, and get moving in the right direction. Get a Grip will give you the means to answer the big questions you are grappling with or the specific ones that are gnawing away at you every day (e.g., Am I meant to be with my partner? Why can't I lose weight? Should I stay at this job?). If all the answers come from within, as long as you are asked the right questions, you can answer and resolve them by yourself!

With a combination of traditional therapy techniques and the author's "tough love" mantra, this book offers on-the-go treatment and the keys to emotional problem solving for your own challenges and lingering hang-ups. The book

• Helps you determine the best course of action to achieve your goals and desires
• Includes the top twenty most commonly asked questions during a therapy session-and how to tackle them head-on
• Challenges you, in incremental measures, to dig deeper
• Shows you how to vent productively and problem solve your own emotional issues
• Shows how to overcome plateaus and inertia to bring lasting change into your life

If you're through with quick fixes that fizzle or feel that expensive therapy sessions aren't for you, there is another way. Take charge of your life now with Get a Grip-and get started on the path to a happier, less stressed, and more balanced new you.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Using a combination of tough love and therapeutic techniques the author aims to help you change your life.' (Wharf, Janury 2011).

From the Inside Flap

"Am I meant to be with my partner?" "Why can't I lose weight?" "Should I stay at this job?" "I need to talk to someone, but therapy takes too long and costs too much."

Wouldn't it be great to find a solid, reliable method for tackling your own personal, social, and professional issues and bringing true, positive change to your life right now? Here it is!

In Get a Grip, clinical psychologist and advice columnist Belisa Vranich helps you jump-start your transformation with a remarkable fourteen-day program of self-action and self-therapy. Guiding you through the process of keeping a daily journal, as if you were speaking to a therapist, she shows you how to find answers that heal and inspire change. Soon you'll be noticing recurring themes, breaking unproductive patterns, and getting yourself moving in the right direction.

Using a powerful combination of tough love and proven, traditional therapeutic techniques, this life-changing program:

• Helps you determine the best course of action to achieve your goals and desires

• Includes the twenty most commonly asked questions during a therapy session and shows you how to address them head-on

• Challenges you, in incremental measures, to dig deeper

• Shows you how to vent productively and problem-solve your own emotional issues

• Provides methods and techniques to help you overcome plateaus and inertia and bring lasting change into your life

In two short weeks, you'll know yourself better than ever before. You'll develop instincts and intuition to help you make difficult choices, set and pursue your goals with confidence and skill, and understand what you really need from your closest relationships. You'll also learn how to use self-therapy every time you face a problem that involves your heart, soul, spirit, emotions, mind, brain, relationships, or ambitions and aspirations.

Don't wait any longer to start getting the most out of life. Take hold of Get a Grip and find the tools you need to begin building the new you today!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470383194
• ISBN-13: 978-0470383193
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #458,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get a Grip--not just a book for weeping females, November 22, 2009

By 

Sandra Fremgen (los angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get a Grip: Your Two Week Mental Makeover (Hardcover)

I was lucky and got an early read of this book. Don't let the melodramatic weeping female on the book cover fool you... this is a serious book that challenges readers to get a better understanding of themselves. For 14 days, Dr. Belisa Vranich takes you through topics that explore aspects of who you are. These aspects include your past, how you and others see yourself, your goals, your future, things that upset you, etc. For each day of exploration, Belisa guides you with strategies used in regular therapy, examples from real life and philosophical examples from all points of view. After taking everything in, you are asked to respond without fear into your journal. The journal is the equivalent of lying down on the therapist's couch and talking. It may seem intimidating to write down your thoughts, but Dr. Belisa provides good guiding questions to get you started. At the end of 14 days, you will be amazed at how much you've opened up.

I was impressed with the book's straight forwardness and friendly tone. Dr. Belisa informs but never talks down to you. It's heavy in ideas and each day's topic could easily branch off into weeks' worth of work. Therefore, this is a book that is useful in multiple phases of your life. I myself have reread sections and reworked the journal questions to gain a deeper understanding.

'Get a Grip' reminds us that there are no easy and gimmicky tricks to understanding ourselves. It requires hard work, persistence (trust me, there were some assignments that i didn't want to do but I made myself do it anyway), and a willingness to listen within. This experience is as rewarding as you want to make it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In flux (and seriously, who isn't)? Here's your sanity guide., November 13, 2009

By 

J. Garbacik (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get a Grip: Your Two Week Mental Makeover (Hardcover)

Whether frumpy, uninformed, or simply boring and inarticulate, too many self-help books have one agenda: to make the author a superstar. THANK GOD FOR BELISA VRANICH, who is *already* a superstar, and an incredibly quick-witted one.

From page one, Belisa's knowledgeable and modern approach, ability to call out the reader on their BS, and realistic solutions stands out from the barrage of emotional makeover books that completely miss the mark. Whether you're coming out of a relationship, making a career switch, or beating yourself up for things you can't change, there's something in this book for anyone in crisis...and probably most people who have it relatively together.

Get a Grip is consistently concentrated on pushing the reader to do real work instead of applying a quick fix. Two weeks of applying honest methodology designed to make you more self-aware and pro-active can yield real results. Belisa's book is a winner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIY Therapy Boot Camp, January 4, 2010

By 

JM - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get a Grip: Your Two Week Mental Makeover (Hardcover)

Don't judge this book by its cover - the cover should be champion raising his or her fist in victory, because that's what I felt like after Dr. Belisa's book. I've tried other self-help type books, and they were all too long. I lost interest halfway through and didn't finish. And then I felt like I had let myself down for not finishing! This book, which takes two weeks, was the perfect amount of time. It's not too long, and there is something to do every day. It's pretty intense to delve this deep in such a short amount of time, but it really worked for me. If ever there was a shortcut for getting your head screwed on straight, this is it. Dr. Belisa's writing is upbeat and accessible and inspiring. I recommend it!