Pack Leader Media Kit - Pack Leader Psychology

Media Kit
for
Pack Leader Psychology
Learn What Dogs Can Teach Us
About Human Behavior
by Harper West, MA
Silver Award Winner in the
Psychology category of the 2013
Independent Book Publishers
Association (IBPA) Benjamin
Franklin Awards.
PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT:
Harper West, MA
248-464-1297 (mobile)
248-726-9751 (office)
harperwest@me.com
What Can Dogs Teach Us About Human Relationships?
While training her dog, author Harper West learned to be the “alpha” or “pack
leader.” She quickly discovered that the same skills that worked so well in dog training
could be applied to human relationships. She then began a journey that transformed her
personality from submissive, abused wife into a confident, self-assured leader of
people.
Now a psychotherapist, West has written the award-winning “Pack Leader
Psychology,” a unique combination of self-help book and deeply personal memoir that
arose out of her experiences in life and dog training. Based on the elemental wisdom of
the animals and the latest research on human social psychology, “Pack Leader
Psychology” draws parallels between dog and human behavior. Stories from the animal
world are used to illustrate simple, yet powerful explanations for the difficulties in
human relationships. Because the explanations are rooted in concepts that will resonate
with readers, the content forms an easily understood model for human behavior.
Written in a crisp, direct and upbeat style, the book’s commonsense explanations
can be immediately applied to all aspects of a reader’s life and can help improve
relationships with family, friends and colleagues. Readers will learn to unleash primal
powers, gain confidence, improve leadership skills, claim respect and discover their
authentic personality. The book helps readers intuitively understand why they behave
as they do, become more emotionally healthy, and identify and predict the behaviors of
others.
“Pack Leader Psychology” by Harper West is available in print ($12.99) and in
ebook ($4.99) at www.PackLeaderPsychology.com. For more information or to follow
West's blog, go to:
www.PackLeaderPsychology.com
www.facebook.com/harperwestauthor
www.linkedin.com/in/harperwestauthor
###
3128 walton blvd., suite 279
rochester hills, mi 48309
248-464-1297
Summary of
Pack Leader Psychology
A Non-Fiction Book
by Harper West
Unleash your primal powers to gain confidence,
claim respect, improve leadership skills and,
strengthen relationships with people!
“Pack Leader Psychology” is a non-fiction book that uniquely draws parallels between
a popular dog-training method and human behavior to help readers effortlessly
transform themselves into confident, assertive pack leaders of people.
Author and psychotherapist Harper West recounts how the lessons she learned while
training her dog, Reilly, transformed her from a submissive, abused wife to a calm,
confident and assertive human pack leader.
In learning to be a pack leader to Reilly, she uncovered a simple, yet powerful,
paradigm about human behavior that readers can immediately apply to all aspects of
their lives. The book helps readers intuitively understand why they behave as they do,
become more emotionally healthy, and identify and predict the behaviors of others.
Readers will be able to take control of their lives as they:
•
learn how to be a calm, assertive leader to their human pack
•
spot those who want to take advantage of them
•
pick an appropriate life partner
•
improve relationships of all types
•
perform better on the job
•
raise emotionally healthy children and
•
discover their authentic personality
Written in a crisp, direct and upbeat style, “Pack Leader Psychology” combines
personal stories from the author’s experiences in life and dog training, with the
elemental wisdom of animals and the latest research on human social psychology. “Pack
Leader Psychology” offers deeper explanations for human behavior than other self-help
books, yet is easy to understand and a quick read. The book’s commonsense
explanations of human behavior can be immediately applied to all aspects of a reader’s
life and can help improve relationships with family, friends and colleagues.
Using indisputable primal behaviors of fight, flight, avoidance, submission and
dominance, “Pack Leader Psychology” simplifies the hundreds of psychological
“disorders” into just a few key categories and concepts. Because the explanations are
rooted in elemental concepts that will resonate with readers, the content forms an easily
understood model for human behavior.
Readers will learn:
•
why some people become aggressive Dominators and others are Submissive
"pleasers"
•
why we unwittingly attract certain types of people into our lives
•
why most relationships today are unhealthy and turn into fights for control
•
why self-blame and low self-worth lead us to “lash out” with fight responses or
“lash in” with flight responses
“Pack Leader Psychology” by Harper West is available in print ($12.99) and in
ebook ($4.99) at www.PackLeaderPsychology.com. For more information or to follow
West's blog, go to:
www.PackLeaderPsychology.com
www.facebook.com/harperwestauthor
www.linkedin.com/in/harperwestauthor
CONTACT:
Harper West, MA
3128 Walton Blvd., Suite 279
Rochester Hills, MI 48309
248-464-1297
www.PackLeaderPsychology.com
harperwest@me.com
Bringing Pack Leader Skills to People
Author’s Credentials
Harper West, MA, is a psychotherapist, speaker, consultant, and author. She has a
passion for bringing relationship skills, leadership skills, and personal assertiveness
skills to people through her book, “Pack Leader Psychology.” West earned a master’s
degree in clinical psychology from the Michigan School of Professional Psychology but
used Pack Leader Psychology principles to completely transform her personality.
Prior to her career in psychology, West was a marketing consultant and freelance writer
specializing in marketing communication for healthcare entities and professionals. She
began her career as a newspaper reporter and editor after earning a bachelor’s degree in
journalism from Michigan State University. She later studied psychology at Oakland
University and Wayne State University. She has written for publication for 30 years,
winning numerous awards for her work in marketing, advertising and public relations.
Questions for Interview of Harper West, Author of "Pack Leader Psychology"
Bio/Short:
Harper West is a psychotherapist from the Detroit area and author of “Pack Leader
Psychology,” a book that uses lessons from the dog world to help us understand
our human relationships.
Bio/Long:
Harper West is a psychotherapist from the Detroit area and author of “Pack Leader
Psychology,” a book that uses lessons from the dog world to help us understand
our human relationships. She earned a master’s degree in clinical psychology from
the Michigan School of Professional Psychology. Prior to her career in psychology
she was a healthcare marketing consultant and freelance journalist for 25 years.
And, yes, she is a pack leader to two dogs: Reilly and Hope. Her book “Pack
Leader Psychology” is available at www.PackLeaderPsychology.com or go to
Amazon.com or BN.com.
WEBSITE: www.PackLeaderPsychology.com
1. Pack Leader Psychology is about what dogs can teach us about
human behavior. How did you make the connection between how
dogs and humans act?
2. What is a Pack Leader?
3. Why is it important to be a Pack Leader?
4. How did becoming a Pack Leader affect you?
5. Can anyone become a Pack Leader? What if I don't want to be a
Pack Leader, because I'm not comfortable in a leadership role?
6. What if I don’t own a dog? Will I understand Pack Leader
Psychology?
7. How does becoming a Pack Leader improve our human
relationships?
8. A lot of people have heard of Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer,
because he uses the phrase “pack leader.” What did you learn from
Cesar?
9. What specific things can we do today to become Pack Leaders?
10.How can listeners improve their relationships using Pack Leader
Psychology ideas?
11.In Pack Leader Psychology you write a lot about the fear response.
What is this?
12.What are some signs that people aren't behaving as Pack Leaders?
13.It seems that men are generally "Dominators" in relationships and
women "Submissives." Is that true? Does that cause problems in
relationships?
14.You give 7 lessons in how to be a pack leader. What are those
lessons?
15.You write a lot about honesty and direct communication, that Pack
Leaders are assertive in their relationships. Why is this so
important?
16.You write that fear of criticism is the main reason people behave as
"Submissives," "Dominators" or "Avoiders." What is the root of that
fear?
17.How can listeners overcome that fear of criticism?
18.You write that our society seems to be one of the reasons we have
so few Pack Leaders right now. Explain.
19.How can parents raise children to be Pack Leaders?
Excerpts from “Pack Leader Psychology”
What Holds Most People Back Isn't Lack of Ability, But Lack of Courage
!
Training was difficult because Reilly had eight months of pent-up puppy energy
– which, if you know German Shorthair Pointers, is a heckofa lot of energy. In the first
few weeks, if I didn’t have two hands firmly on her collar she broke away and tore off
to go hunting in the woods behind my house. She snuck off and pilfered the neighbor’s
trashcans routinely, running proudly back home with her finds of pizza crusts and pork
chop bones. She killed any critter she could grab a hold of. I was at my wits’ end during
those early days. I needed more discipline with her.
The symbolism is quite ironic now that, at the same time, I also needed to exert
more discipline over my husband, Ray. I had no skills or knowledge to manage a wild
puppy or a jealous, controlling husband. I didn’t realize both were dominating me in
unhealthy ways and, with my submissive behavior, I was ignorantly allowing them to
manipulate me. I felt angry and powerless, not realizing I held the keys to asserting
myself with both dog and husband with just some simple behavior and attitude
changes. So I set about training Reilly, not realizing that what I would learn would
eventually help me train myself and allow me to take control of my life.
***
The More Parts of Ourselves We Reject, the More Important It Is to Feel Accepted
Then one day while running with Reilly, I experienced a flash of insight. I realized that I
was just like a dog rolling over and showing her belly to anyone who walked up. I was
exhibiting my weaknesses without question to everyone, even unstable, controlling men
like Ray who clearly did not have my best interests at heart. I was too trusting and
naïve. The word “accommodating” suddenly seemed far too insubstantial for how I was
behaving. I was submissive. Much too submissive. I actually cowered like the lowest
omega dog in the pack that is happy to receive some scraps from the carcass, pleased
that that the pack doesn't beat it up or chase it away.
The terms used in the animal world became much more meaningful to me. I had
observed that while dominant and subordinate roles are natural states in dog packs,
some domesticated dogs don’t behave in well-adjusted ways. When a dog doesn’t have
a balanced pack leader and feels fearful, it will adopt one of three main behavior modes:
overly dominant, overly submissive or overly avoidant.
I immediately made the connection that people, almost universally, behaved in similarly
unhealthy and unbalanced ways. Once I recognized this distinction, I could look around
at the difficult people in my life and see that they often fell very clearly into one of these
three categories. I named people with these behavior patterns quite simply:
“Dominators,” “Submissives,” and “Avoiders.”
!
!
!
***
When You Live Only for Your Own Approval, the Risk of Rejection Disappears
Because I no longer have irrational fears of being criticized, controlled, or dominated, I
am living one of Reilly’s lessons: Be brave. I am bravely allowing emotional intimacy
into my life. I am allowing friends and lovers to be close but not overly demanding. I
am bravely being honest with people when I feel I have been disrespected. I am
expressing my emotions, which makes people sense that I am an emotionally warm
person and they can be free to open up emotionally as well.
I also smile at the irony that, previously, I didn’t listen to my intuition and didn’t
accurately sense when I should be fearful. Yet I still lived in fear – fear of all the wrong
things. I was afraid of not being liked, yet this fear was exactly the weakness others
preyed on and the real reason I should have been afraid. I was busy being afraid of
rejection, yet this should have been the least of my worries. I had already rejected
myself, the most fundamental source of shame and criticism there is.
I now realize that by existing for everyone else’s approval, one constantly risks
rejection. When one lives only for one's own approval, the risk of rejection disappears.
A pack leader listens to her intuition to sense fear, but knows that acting bravely starts
with thinking bravely about herself. Inner, emotional fears are the most debilitating
fears of all. When in doubt, be brave. I have learned a very important lesson: When you
have nothing left to prove, your fear of disapproval goes
away.! !
!
!
!
***
Beware of the Need for Belonging “Gone Bad”
Conformity, agreement, and compliance are innate in humans, because hunting,
fighting off predators, and caring for young are much easier as a community.
Reciprocity also feeds and drives our need to fit in. Our reputation is important if we
want to be part of the tribe. Most of us don’t want to be seen as cheaters, and therefore
ostracized, so we cooperate and are generous with others to boost our reputation. We
conform, agree, and don’t make waves. We not only share tonight’s antelope, but this
cooperation ensures that we can hang out with the group around the fire tonight and be
safe. We social creatures have an inborn urge to cooperate, if only so we don’t get
kicked out of the tribe.
This urge for social integration is so powerful it drives much of individual human
behavior even today, when we don’t need to band together to fight off a lion or the
neighboring tribe. It is a natural desire for all people to avoid feeling helpless and cast
out.
The “longing for belonging” can, however, lead to less-than-admirable behaviors.
Because this urge is so elemental to us, the threat of social disconnection can trigger an
automatic fear response. Our primal brain senses our survival is at stake and responds.
Some researchers even use the phrase “social death” to describe the phenomenon – an
indication of the power of exclusion.
Feelings of isolation are toxic emotionally and even physically. Neuroscientists now
know that the same part of the brain that evaluates physical pain, the anterior cingulate
cortex, is also used to judge the emotional pain of social rejection.
Conversely, the feeling of inclusion is physically healthy, bringing lower heart rates,
improved sleep, and reduced stress hormones, according to numerous medical studies.
Other research shows that married people have lower rates of illness and live longer.
Feeling alone and excluded triggers feelings of fear, anger, and anxiety that result in
physical symptoms, such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
However, unbalanced people take the fear of being cast out to an extreme. It shows up
in the nearly insatiable need for acceptance and the approval of others. While this need
has its roots in a primal drive for survival, it has become a cause of most of our modern
psychological and behavioral problems. People labeled by psychologists with many
different diagnoses, including paranoid and depressed, are often hyper-alert to being
emotionally victimized or rejected by others.
In the past, I was eager to get along with others, but I took my submissiveness too far,
subsuming my needs in the service of getting others to like me and accept me. In taking
the primal need for cooperation to an unhealthy level, I cooperated with everyone –
even those who wanted to harm me.
STORY TOPICS BASED ON "PACK LEADER PSYCHOLOGY" BY HARPER WEST
GENERAL
____ ! 7 Habits of Human "Pack Leaders"
____ ! Are You a Human Pack Leader?
____ ! Lessons We Can Learn from Animals about Leadership
____ ! Strengthen Relationships at Work and Home Using Skills from the Animal World
____ ! Transform Yourself into a Pack Leader -- Effortlessly
____ ! How To Become the "Alpha" In Your Relationships, Career, and With Your Kids
____ ! What Would a Pack Leader Do?
RELATIONSHIPS
____ ! 7 Unhealthy Relationship Patterns you can Break Now
____ ! You Can't Handle the Truth: Is Avoiding Conflict Damaging Your Relationships
!
and Career?
____ ! Trust Your Intuition To Pick A Great Date or Mate
____ ! Dating: Learn Why You Keep Picking the Wrong Person
____ ! Dating: 5 Ways to Spot Controllers and Abusers
____ ! Are You Predator Or Prey? How To Spot And Stop These Behaviors In Yourself
!
And Others
____ ! Dating Tip: Tricks Therapists Use To Get People to Talk About Themselves
____ ! Secrets from a Therapist on how to be a Better Mate
____ ! How to be a Pack Leader and Enhance your Relationship
____ ! Dominance and Submission: Unhealthy Relationship Patterns You Can Break
!
Now
____ ! Assert Yourself to Halt Disrespect
____ ! Strengthen your Relationship with Assertiveness
____ ! Dating (Couples): Stop Asking Questions and be a Better Conversationalist
____ ! Are You Needy and Clingy? How to Stop Now
____ ! Are You Jealous and Controlling? How to Stop Now
PARENTING
____ ! Are You a Pack Leader Parent?
____ ! How NOT to Raise a Child With Low Self-Esteem, Who is Lazy, Irresponsible,
!
Entitled and Insecure
____ ! How NOT to Raise a Mass Murderer
____ ! Listen Your Way to Better Parenting
____ ! The Worst Parenting Conversation... That Millions of Moms and Dads Have
!
Every Day
____ ! How Boosting Self-Esteem in Kids Backfires
____ ! Is Your Parenting Causing Your Child's ADHD?
____ ! Is Your Parenting Causing Your Child's Tantrums and !Arguing?
____ ! Really Listen to Your Kids (And Improve their Self-Esteem)
____ ! Become the "Big Dog" with Your Kids and Stop All the Arguing
____ ! Become a Pack Leader and a Better Parent
BUSINESS/WORK/CAREER
____ ! Be a Pack Leader at Work and Gain Influence
____ ! How to Become the "Big Dog" at Work
____ ! Are you Leader or a Bully at Work?
____ ! Can Women be Pack Leaders at Work?
____ ! Is Fear of Criticism Sabotaging your Career?
SELF-IMPROVEMENT
____ ! Fight or Flight: Which Do You Choose?
____ ! The Real Reason You Hate Criticism So Much and How to Change
____ ! Improve Your Self-Respect and Eliminate Anxiety, Depression, or Aggression
____ ! Is Low Self-Esteem Making You Prey to the Predators in Your Life?
____ ! Discover Your Authentic Self: The Power of Self-Respect and Self-Acceptance
____ ! Do You Cry Easily?: Why and How to Stop It
____ ! What's the Big Deal about Self-Acceptance?
____ ! Are You Afraid of People? Social Anxiety Explained and Solved
____ ! Approval Seeking: Natural Inclination or Unhealthy Neediness?
MENTAL ILLNESS
____ ! Is Society Causing Sky High Rates of Anxiety and Depression?
____ ! How the Psychiatry Profession Gets It All Wrong
____ ! How the Mental Health Professions are Misdiagnosing Millions Of People
____ ! Don't Trust Psychiatrists: What Is Wrong With the Mental Health Profession
____ ! Debunking the Myths of Mental Illness
____ ! Before the Next Tragedy: How to Spot a Mass Murderer in Your Midst
____ ! There is No Such Thing as a Mental Disorder: What is
!
Really Wrong with How We Diagnose Mental Illness
WOMEN
____ ! Can Women Be Pack Leaders In Business, Relationships and As Parents?
FRIENDS
____ ! How to Be a Better Friend by NOT Giving Advice
CAREER
____ ! Reinventing Yourself at Midlife: Why Am I Stuck?
____ ! The Psychology of Career Choice
!
SEASONAL
____ ! Singles: How to Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself On Valentine's Day/Christmas/
!
New Year's/On Vacation