The Journey to Be Your Own Best Friend is a slim little book, and my first reaction was to assume it was going to be pure pop psychology.

And, indeed, there is nothing very original in this book. Ms. Parish,a career counselor and motivational speaker, quotes or refers to Dr. Stephen Covey and Dr. Phil quite often, and she does not claim to be presenting new ideas.

What she does do is to present real, sound advice and techniques for anyone who is troubled by self-doubt, guilt, or lack of confidence. She not only says that changing the way you think will change your life, she provides scenarios to help the reader identify thinking that needs to be changed and positive ways to go about changing it.

The key concepts in this book are that we teach others how to treat us by the way we treat ourselves, and that positive thinking results in positive change.

While the book is written in a very easy to read and understandable style, Ms. Parish gives clear and concise explanations of concepts from Zen (Mushin, the art of not-thinking,) B.F. Skinner (behavior reinforcement), Maslov (the heirarchy of needs), and Victor Vroom (expectancy theory.)

I particularly like the way this book is organized. Ms. Parish constantly reinforces her points using text blocks for Thoughts to Ponder, Reinforcement Moments, and Awareness Moments. The evaluation sections with spaces to write in your own responses entice the reader to stop and think before moving on. At the end of each chapter, she provides a summary which restates the main points of the chapter, making use of bulletted lists for key points.

While many years of experience have brought me to a point where I am happy with who I am, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to any person I know who is struggling with negativity or still trying to find the way to be their own best friend.