Self: Made

You’ve heard of self-made entrepreneurs who built businesses and riches from scratch. What if your “self” could be “made” – crafted based on your career, relationship, and personal life goals. What if, instead of letting a personality test tell you what you’d be good at, you identified the life you want and shaped your personality to make those dreams more likely. 

Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala, a clinical psychologist and academic researcher, has dedicated her career to developing psychological treatments to help people recover from mental health difficulties. She has focused on proven strategies to shift the personality traits that put people at risk for anxiety, depression, substance misuse, etc. But you don’t need to be struggling with your mental health to take advantage of what the science of personality change has to offer.

By taking small, manageable steps (i.e., changing your behavior) and shifting how you think about yourself (i.e., changing your thoughts), you can start an upward trajectory that ends in lasting personality change. Dr. Sauer-Zavala is working on a self-help book that will bring the tools she’s learned through her years of experience as a therapist, as well as her expertise as a personality scientist, to everyone.