Parent Effectiveness Training – by Dr. Thomas Gordon

Do you want your home (or workplace, for that matter) to be a place of peace? This book literally got the author nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Can’t really get much higher praise than that.

The title is “Parent Effectiveness Training”, but in reality, the advice in the book is applicable to all manner of relationships, including:

• romantic relationships
• friends
• colleagues
• …and really any human interaction.

It covers some of the same topics we did today (and more) in much more detail than we ever could in a newsletter. It lays out formulae to use, gives plenty of examples, and/but is free from undue padding.

• Pros: this isn’t one of those “should have been an article” books. It has so much valuable content.
• Cons: It is from the 1970s* so examples may feel “dated” now.

In addition to going into much more detail on some of the topics covered in today’s issue of 10almonds, Dr. Gordon also talks in-depth about the concept of “problem-ownership”.

In a nutshell, that means: whose problem is a given thing? Who “has” what problem? Everyone needs to be on the same page about everyone else’s problems in the situation… as well as their own, which is not always a given!

Dr. Gordon presents, in short, tools not just to resolve conflict, but also to pre-empt it entirely. With these techniques, we can identify and deal with problems (together!) well before they arise.

Everybody wins.

Get your copy of “Parent Effectiveness Training” from Amazon today!

*Note: There is an updated edition on the market, and that’s what you’ll find upon following the above link. This reviewer (hi!) has a battered old paperback from the 1970s and cannot speak for what was changed in the new edition. However: if the 70s one is worth more than its weight in gold (and it is), the new edition is surely just as good, if not better!