The Tools: Transform Your Problems into Courage, Confidence, and Creativity

Psychotherapists Phil Stutz and Barry Michels describe five techniques drawn from their combined decades of clinical practice, each designed to transform a specific category of psychological obstacle into a source of momentum rather than paralysis. The tools, which include practices for confronting pain, activating love in hostile situations, and developing inner authority, are designed for rapid deployment in the moment of need rather than requiring extended practice or meditation. The Tools presents their clinical methodology in a form accessible to people who are not in therapy.

Stutz and Michels narrate together, and their voices carry the specific warmth of clinicians who have seen these techniques work. Their conversational delivery makes the more counterintuitive advice go down more easily, and the case illustrations they provide give each tool concrete application. At just over seven hours, The Tools is a self-help audiobook that takes the psychological underpinnings of its advice seriously.