The mark of genius is the ability to take complex principles of human behavior and develop pragmatic applications. Dr. Dennis Pezzato is able to reduce such complexities into easily understood applications for everyday life. His readers will benefit from his years of education, personal application and wisdom that comes from living what he teaches. His book series will make one a believer that great gifts do come in small packages.

Donald G. Burger, PhD.

Clinical Psychologist Lic. #PSY 8503

Marriage, Family, Child Therapist Lic. # PSY M17733

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As a client in a substance abuse rehabilitation program, I had Dr. Pezzato come into my life and help me.  He taught me and the others about parenting, about ourselves, and about relationships.  But the thing I value most is what he helped me learn about who I am and how much I really am capable of doing and being. I am so grateful that Dr. Pezzato cared enough to give his time voluntarily; he is an inspiration and a wonderful person who genuinely cares.

Ms. Anonymous

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What I liked about it was that it was so very easy to read, was not preachy and it offered a very basic, common sense approach to parenting. It also helped that so much of what you say was what I did! But prejudices aside, it fits well with my parenting and counseling styles. As a counselor, I work with kids, families, parents, singles -- the whole lot -- and I have created a range of one-page documents on various issues, which I use in counseling sessions. The fact that each of your topics, or most of them any way, are addressed in the same format, fits well with what I do. I keep the book in my briefcase and if there is a parenting issue I need to address with a client at a particular moment, I will often (forgive me for this, but I have done this a few times) photo copy a particular page and give it as a hand out I have also loaned the book to clients and it has come back -- a bonus
and their comments have been positive as well.

For me, counseling is a very interactive discipline, one that requires a lot of work on the part of the client for any real change or positive outcome to occur. I base a lot of my work on cognitive interventions and rely heavily on a solution focused model, encouraging them to learn to think through and plan for success. It seems to work well and I have a pretty high rate of clients who tell me they feel much better prepared to negotiate the twists and turns of life with the skills I have taught them. To do that, I use various tools -- such as your book!
Any way, thank you for writing that book - I look forward to seeing the next one.

Kind regards,

Joyce Butcher Counselor - Australia

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Dear Dennis,

I received the manuscript yesterday and began to peruse it, and read the whole thing. It reads really well and I think hits all the major topics. I didn't realize it was framed as a planning-for-marriage book but I think that is a good strategy. It's readability gets a lot of important information out there pretty quickly, and then people can follow-up with pieces that strike them or that they need to focus on.

I think you would enjoy meeting the students of my class. I think you will be surprised at how truly naive they are about all of these topics. I would love to have you come and speak to the class if it works with your schedule. The students are all seniors in college, so age 21-22, and about to graduate. A few are engaged but mostly they are not looking at marriage immediately. They are generally scared of the permanence of marriage and they are even more scared of the prospect of divorce, so they feel pretty caught.

Congratulations,

Sherry Cassedy
Adjunct Professor - The Theology of Marriage
Santa Clara University