Scribe Publications Reinventing Your Life: the bestselling breakthrough programme to end negative behaviour and feel great

I had a really bad 2014 and made some really stupid decisions and upset a LOT of people in the process. Issues had been bubbling under the surface all my life (i cared for after a terminally ill parent since I was a child) but had started to take over my mind from 40 - 44 as I matured and start to discover myself - and confuse myself in the process. I have to say I have never been happy with "ME" and always felt like something was missing in life. Even though I dragged myself up from stacking super market shelves to running a very successful business - I never felt happy with my achievements.This book really has changed my life! I have never understood myself, and have never understood what makes me tick, what makes me do the things I do, and behave in the way I do. I often got into situations and then got frustrated and unhappy as a result.This book has helped me unravel ALL of my life from the day I was born. It has helped me piece together so many different aspects, to the point where I was able to sum up my life in a short 1000 word essay and completely discover who I was.I didn't read chapter one of this book, I was a bit impatient so went to straight to chapter 2 - the quiz. Out of 11 of the lifetraps - 8 of them were problems for me. Ouch!I then read chapters 3,4,5 to understand more about lifetraps in general and how we respond to them. Fascinating insight in to my life already. I then did the longer questionnaires for the 8 potential lifetraps and whittled it down to 5 confirmed lifetraps. I then set about reading just these 5 chapters. I would NOT recommend you jump into this book without first doing the test in chapter 2 and working out your lifetraps - this is really important.I have to say that reading these chapters was like reading a biography - it was ME - in a book!! It was a very emotional time. Not only did the book tell me about the lifetraps but it provided me with practical advice on how to stop them controlling my life.This book - in combination with reaching the lowest point in my life at the end of 2014 has been a revelation and I cannot praise it enough. Buy it.

This book is incredibly in depth and well written. In the simplest of terms it unravels the most complex and troubling parts of ourselves. It has helped me understand myself so much better, but it has also given me an intimate understanding of the people around me. I can not recommend this book enough. It won't just change your life, it will change your world.My abusive ex partner borrowed the book after me. After reading the first few chapters, he has taken it upon himself to calculate how much money he stole from me over the years, and has taken a second job to pay it back. He apologized for the way he treated me when I was with him, and for the first time I see genuine empathy and emotional connection in his eyes. We have been broken up for 1.5 years, and in that time he was unable to connect with to anyone, let alone me. While the book didn't come in time to save that relationship, it may have at least saved his self worth, and prevented him from victimizing anyone else in the way he hurt me. This is such a powerful book.

This book was highly recommended to me by my Psychologist. It is a BRILLIANT book. You read it and BAM "that's me" ,"that's sooooo like me", "That's exactly what I have done" all the way through. I find it hard to read much at a time though - because it hits so many nails on the head and can feel a bit raw at times. Somewhere it mentions if bits are too hard then to work through some of your revelations with a therapist. Very good idea. Otherwise you would end up identifying your problems, TRYING to solve them with the books ideas but maybe not totally succeeding. Incredibly good, insightful, self help book. Found the american-isms & terminology tricky at first, but you get used to it. Amazing how he has turned what could have been a good - but dry, dusty academic text book - into real human situations. It is definitely helping me be less of a sadgirl! Thanks Jeffrey x

I was advised to buy this book by my psychotherapist - though I've not yet read through the relevant chapters which apply to myself I can already see that I have many of the lifetraps (or maladaptive schemas) outlined in the text. After living with depression, feeling like an outsider, having various problems and being rather lonely for many years I've finally discovered that much of how I think and behave has originated from how I was parented and dates from the earliest years of my childhood. To say that this has been a revelation is something of an understatement; I've found myself going 'yes, I'm just like that; yes that's me' as the authors discuss several patient case studies; my earliest years had become something of a blank in my memory and I'd always felt there was something of a void in my life and now I know why. The book has a number of short questionnaires that enable the reader to determine which lifetraps apply and each lifetrap is then described in detail with advice on how to deal with it and overcome the associated problems; as such the book offers a route for self-help although those with deep issues might need the assistance of a professional therapist. There are several Internet sites which deal with Schema Therapy, such as author Jeffrey Young's Schema Therapy Institute http://www.schematherapy.com/id201.htm and another run by psychotherapist Shari Schreiber which has lots of useful information, particularly concerning Borderline Personality Disorder. On the subject of personality disorders (or PDs); schema therapy is especially useful in the treatment of these because it appears that most PDs have origins in early childhood and it's this area that receives attention in Young and Klosko's book.

No question that this book offers insight and explanation as to the relationship between our adult ways/patterns and our childhood experiences. I think many of the so called life traps overlap. My two top ones were compassionately written. Another one I thought I had was rather harsh. Did I find it helpful? Did it give me confidence? Not really. I think it helps to have some sense of self and identity to read this book.