Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward | 
| Authors: James O. Prochaska, John Norcross, Carlo Diclemente
Publisher: Collins Living
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 6305
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 038072572X
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9780380725724
ASIN: 038072572X
Publication Date: September 1, 1995
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Product Description
How many times have you thought about starting a diet or quitting smoking without doing anything about it? Or lapsed back into bad habits after hitting a rough spot on the road to recovery? To uncover the secret to successful personal change, three acclaimed psychologists studied more than 1,000 people who were able to positively and permanently alter their lives without psychotherapy. They discovered that change does not depend on luck or willpower. It is a process that can be successfully managed by anyone who understands how it works. Once you determine which stage of change you're in, you can: - create a climate where positive change can occur
- maintain motivation
- turn setbacks into progress
- make your new benefifificial habits a permanent part of your life
This groundbreaking book offers simple self-assessments, informative case histories, and concrete examples to help clarify each stage and process. Whether your goal is to start saving money, to stop drinking, or to end other self-defeating or addictive behaviors, this revolutionary program will help you implement positive personal change . . . for life. The National Cancer Institute Found this program more than twice as effective as standard programs in helping smokers quit for 18 months.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Great tool for both client and counselor! May 4, 2008
This book explains the model of change in a straightforward and applicable manner. Contains great examples and stories relevant to change, and the material is presented in a clear and intelligent manner. It will prove to be a great tool to use in my practice.
 What a nice change! July 14, 2007
272 out of 273 found this review helpful
Unlike most self-help books out there, this one is actually based on research for a change. Based on this Phd's work on how people change, this guy has uncovered the different, predictable stages of change that people go through when they attempt to get themselves to change. Although the stages are fairly predictable, not everybody goes through them in the exact same order as some people skip various stages on their way to changing their behaviour. A great book all-in-all, it's definitely worth a look. Also liked The Sixty-Second Motivator.
an important book for change July 10, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
OK, finally a book for change that is truly worth embracing. This is based on research, not mere theory. It clearly sets forth the process for how people change across a spectrum of stages that make sense. Several common problems are used as examples of the process. The reader without substantial background in psychotherapy may need some help, or a coach. I suggest the reader pick some area of his life where change is desired (start with something small to get the process learned both with word images and behavioural experience) and work through the book. Once the process is learned, move on to new challenges.
An essential book on self-improvement May 26, 2007
9 out of 18 found this review helpful
Unless you are (or think you are) the ultimate, paradigmatic exemplar of Peter Drucker's "Effective Executive", you can probably think of a thing or two you would like to change about yourself. Certainly, CEOs and other top executives tend not to be heavy drinkers, heavy smokers, or simply very heavy, so you may be looking to change one of those behaviors. Or perhaps you find yourself making poor decisions because of long-standing impatience, arrogance, or inability to tolerate uncertainty. Perhaps an executive coach has identified a characteristic that you agree is less than optimal for your own career and for your organization's performance. Yet, like organizational change, personal change is hard. Reliable guidelines have been lacking for either kind of change. The authors of Changing for Good make a strong case for having developed a more scientifically sound approach to personal change.
Clinical psychologist James Prochaska and his colleagues studied the many strategies self-changers used to quit smoking, stop drinking, and lose weight. These researchers faced a challenge in figuring out what works and what doesn't for people attempting to change: over 400 distinct systems of psychotherapy now offer a helping hand. Each school relies on at least one, but often several, specific techniques. One group of people who were quitting smoking, Prochaska discovered, were using more than 130 different techniques. Anyone wanting to identify the most effective methods to change an unhealthy behavior would quickly become overwhelmed with options and confused by competing claims.
In 1975, Lester Luborsky, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, had published research showing that all generally accepted psychological therapies produced practically equivalent positive outcomes. Prochaska thought that if he could uncover what the therapies had in common, perhaps he could integrate them. After puzzling over his transtheoretical data, Prochaska realized that all those energetic disputes over causes, and all the diversity of techniques, concealed an underlying simplicity in the processes of change which described how change is produced. His final roster of processes of change included nine members: consciousness-raising, social liberation, emotional arousal, self-reevaluation, commitment, countering, environment control, rewards, and helping relationships.
By tuning in to what self-changers told him, Prochaska also discerned several distinct stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. Enduring success at change requires that you know what stage you are in for the problem you want to overcome. "The key to success is the appropriately timed use of a variety of coping skills." The right processes should be used for each stage of change. Knowing the stage for the change at issue is the crucial element. Once you know that, you can deploy the relevant process, each of which can work through a variety of techniques such as observations, bibliotherapy, policy interventions, psychodrama, role playing, value clarification, imagery, decision-making therapy, logotherapy, relaxation, desensitization, environmental restructuring, contingency contracts, and social support.
As Prochaska and co-authors explain in detail, self-changers who tried to apply a technique suited for one process would be frustrated if that process were irrelevant to their current stage. You wouldn't get anywhere applying reinforcement techniques brilliantly designed for the process of reward if you were still in the precontemplation or contemplation stages. On the other hand, behaviorist techniques of reward and environment control could be effective if you were in the maintenance phase. If you were in the contemplation phase, where you accept that you need to make a change but still need to understand more about it, you should use change processes associated with the experiential, cognitive, and psychoanalytic traditions. These would include methods for self-reevaluation, countering dysfunctional thoughts, and emotional arousal. Improving the chances of successful change, Prochaska had shown, depended on matching processes and stages of change--a discovery whose breakthrough nature has been proven repeatedly ever since.
Changing for Good February 19, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Excellent guide for those interested in a path to changing behaviors that is sustainable.
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