Customer Reviews

Transforming Your Dragons: How to Turn Fear Patterns into Personal Power

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Psychotherapist Jose Stevens, Ph.D. has more than twenty years experience helping people overcome the fears that can cripple them. He maintains an active private practice as well as lecturing nationally and internationally. Transforming Your Dragons: How To Turn Fear Patterns Into Personal Power is his seventh book. Dr. Stevens says "you as an individual cannot transform yourself unless you personally face your own fears. Facing fear often means looking at the dark, shadowy side of yourself--not to feel guilty or shameful or to punish yourself, but to release the potential vitality locked up therein." He describes the major fears as "dragons" and his book is a guide to confronting those dragons and transforming their power into personal energy. He names the dragons "arrogance, self-deprecation, impatience, martyrdom, self-destruction, greed, and stubbornness." These dragons are "the cause of all human-created suffering." The dragons, and the harm they cause, are first discussed in general terms. Dr. Stevens explains the interrelationships between them and how they function. Each dragon has a positive, as well as negative, aspect. For example, the worst of the impatience dragon is intolerance, while the best of it leads to daring. Each dragon is then given a section of its own. Dr. Stevens describes how each dragon can manifest itself, including the differences between outer and inner manifestations. He explains how the dragons develop and gain their power (almost always in childhood), and how they impact adults. He then provides detailed instructions on how to "slay" each dragon. Numerous case studies reinforce his concepts. Readers wanting to regain their energy and know the power that comes from inner peace will find Transforming Your Dragons an excellent resource that's full of practical help.

Sandra I. Smith, Reviewer

I was required to read this book for a class, so my outlook on it was more skeptical than normal. It went on to surprise and please me with its practical accessibility and good sense.

In brief, the premise is that our weaknesses--the ways in which we defeat ourselves--can be broadly categorized. In so doing, we can work to defeat these 'dragons'' grip on our personalities. It includes an exam to help identify your dragon(s) and stage of maturity, an in-depth discussion of each dragon, a section on how they work together, and a generous list of ideas for self-guided therapy to regain the particular dragon's virtue without suffering its failings.

Easy to read, well organized, makes intuitive sense, practical: a refreshing list of qualities. Recommended whether one simply seeks to better understand oneself and others, or is seriously intending to undertake personal transformation.

The book outlines a unique, imaginative approach that helps you recognize personal traits, understand root causes (your dragons), and work towards overcoming them.

Your specific dragons (and their counter-intuitive combinations) may indeed surprise you. For once, you cannot retort - "Tell me something I don't know!"

And it's definitely for EVERYONE - don't let the title suggest that it is for those with a definite "fear pattern" - if you desire more "Personal Power", go for it NOW!

The approach also makes it hard to be ambiguous about one's self-assessment - in fact it's quite straight-forward and swift - leading to an insightful assessment that is a critical starting point for any self-improvement endeavor.

Good job, Jose! and Good luck, fellow readers!

I have read quite a lot of self help books, but this one was different. All other books that I have read gave same methods for everyone.

Jose Stevens helps you to identify your dragons (problem areas), then describes your problems and gives recommendations to deal with them. So you can get faster results because you concentrate on problems specific to you.

For me, it was a shock to know truth about dragons that ruled my life. It takes some courage to accept the truth, but when I do and started to work on my problems, results came immediately.
Now I am 200% happier person than I have ever been and that's only beginning !

Other thing I gained is better understanding of people. Earlier I can really understand only people that are like me. Now I can see what dragons other people have and how they manipulates them.

I was expecting the usual self-help book, with idealistic but generalized and useless exercises, flowery language that doesn't really say anything, and thinly-veiled advertisements for other books or products. Thankfully, this book has none of these. The writing is clear and direct, and the exercises are real and empowering. This book has helped me learn more about myself in a few days than I learned over the course of many years prior. Often, I felt the book was directed specifically at me, so accurate were the descriptions of the ways in which the "dragons" manifest themselves.

My one complaint (very minor) is that the section on maturity was almost overtly political, and in general not very useful or relevant to the core of the book. Happily, you can skip this section without hindering the usefulness of the rest of the book.

All in all, I recommend this book without any serious reservations.

Although the basic premise on which this book is based is what is known as the "chief feature" from the Messages from Michael book, I think Stevens has done a brilliant job of cutting out any psychobabble as well as any NewAge hippie-ism and purely focussed on the practical, usable, efficient methods of dealing with that aspect of our personality which most affects us in a negative fashion.
It may seem simplistic and yet the more I look at people, the more obvious it becomes that they are in the grip of one of the seven types of dragons (or rather one of the pairs of dragons) and it is truly the only think limiting them from showing their true potential through. The history of how these dragons are formed is particularly useful I think in that it not only shows you how you became the way you are but also highlights dangers you may encounter as a parent and hopefully how to avoid creating very pronounced dragons in your own children.

An excellent book. I am normally very critical of any self-help type book, but this one really does produce results (of course you have to apply the principles, but that's up to you, not the author!)

"Transforming Your Dragons" describes in great detail the seven personality patterns that keep us from living fully and successfully (aptly called personality "dragons"). Jose Stevens provides overviews, detailed descriptions of how they develop and operate, checklists and exercises that can help anyone be more effective, more successful and live a happier life.
I have used this book until it's dog-eared for myself, used the many tools from the book and Jose's workshops with clients, and have recommended it to countless numbers of people.
The dragon tools have helped me immeasurablly to be more successful in business. By learning the fear patterns (my own and those of others), I am able to know when others are operating from their dragons and change my approach to allow them to be themselves, reduce their fear of me and my ideas, and in the end, I can be more successful and have more win/win situations. It has also helped me to be a better person by knowing my own dragons, being able to feel when they are at work, and work to tame them.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in self growth, as well as anyone who must negotiate in business or personal life to get things done.

Hi,

I read this as I was going through therapy. Together I was able to sort out my ways of reacting to people and how they got setup. He believes you can only have one of them, but I think I had three. I have different histories to explain each, but now I have them under control. If only there was a book that would help me sort out my Dyslexia this easy. (Sorry for the spelling errors.)

Good read. (If you know anything about Dyslexia it's hard for me to read at all, but this was worth it.)

BB

If you are interested in having clarity in regards to your unconscious behavior, this book is a big help.

While in print for over 15 years this book is as valuable today as when it was first published. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and practicing psychotherapist I recommend this as one of the most insightful and valuable reference books to everyone I work with--clients and staff alike. I have even used the book as the basis for a mental health treatment group in a drug and alcohol residential program. If you are committed to self development and serious about personal growth, this is an outstanding resource. As a caution, I strongly suggest that anyone planning to use this in working with others begin first with a careful indepth study of the material and apply it initially to your own life. The material is to be used sensitively with compassion as a powerful resource for healing.