Push Back: Assert Yourself in Relationships

by Monica Johnson, The Great Courses

As children, many of us aren’t taught the importance of assertiveness. Which means, as adults, we often become frustrated in interpersonal relationships because we don’t know how to express our needs, desires, or expectations. That frustration can lead to worst-case scenarios, like acting out in ways that don’t match our character, or even creating abusive dynamics in our relationships.

Holding boundaries and asserting yourself are crucial skills for maintaining healthy relationships and a sense of self-respect. In Push Back: Assert Yourself in Relationships, professional clinical psychologist Dr. Monica Johnson teaches you how to clearly define your limits, communicate those limits to others, and foster mutual respect and understanding in your everyday interactions. Over eight lectures, you’ll examine the social and psychological factors that make assertiveness so difficult; the pros and cons of passive, passive-aggressive, aggressive, and assertive communication styles; ways to structure your sentences when asking for what you want; the importance of context and nuance in interpersonal communication; and much more.

Dr. Johnson’s Audible Original is an insightful, empowering guidebook for anyone on the path to becoming a more assertive person. Over time, and with practice, you’ll find yourself more skillful at pushing back than you could ever have imagined.

Genres: Audiobook, Psychology, Personal Development, Nonfiction, Self Help

3 pages, Audible Audio

Published May 2, 2024

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Sian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book nicely explains examples of how to communicate in ways that are honouring oneself and respectfully expressing what you would like/need to, in an assertive, yet non aggressive, shaming and blaming stance. It teaches you to communicate with a loving kindness, including ways to support passive body language. It also shares advice on how to practise timeliness, which is a wonderful tool to have.

It was nice to have a refresher for advantageous communication. I have learnt this previously, however, with patterns learned in childhood, they can have a tendency to get lost in the abyss of emotional reactions that can arise(rather than responding), so I personally found it a beneficial listen. What’s not to like with a boost of healthy self empowerment anyway, it supports us and who we are talking to, as boundaries are so important for both parties. Am I right, or am I right. 🫶🏼🥰

I give this book 3.25 stars.

[Biggest Little Book Talker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I do admit that I read it to confirm by own biases or to self affirm my action, but it opened my eyes to several communication styles.
This book outlines several positive and negative communications styles and clear examples to all of them. There are several ways to approach a situation and several outcomes based on the styles of communication that is used.
This book gives a good outline and leads way for larger books or the expansion of research deeper into the topics.
There is a lot packed into this little audible and I think it be a great start for someone wanting to better themselves and their boundaries.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that everyone needs to listen to. In 2 1/2 hours, you get a wonderful overview of communication styles along with their positives and negatives, along with tips on how to be assertive and how to deal with aggressive and passive-aggressive types.

While much of this book seems to be about personal relationships, those of us who have to deal with aggressive and passive-aggressive people in the workplace will find it helpful, too.

I'm at a point in my life where I do not tolerate bad behavior from friends, family, or strangers. However, there's not a lot I can do about badly behaving people in the workplace. This book gave me some tools, such as DEAR MAN that were fantastic. If I'd had a class like this in high school or college, my interpersonal and work relationships as a young adult would have been so much better.

Even if you think you know everything and are a great communicator and a happy person, give this a listen. It's only 2 1/2 hours and you might learn something new.

This was excellent. Audiobooks such as this are making me a huge Audible Premium Plus fan.

[Ethan Petuchowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well structured, not overly verbose, decent content, easy to understand. Seems like a leadership training workshop kind of thing. Calls out different aspects of personality and breaks them down into subgroups, provides relatable example problematic scenarios for each subgroup, and suggests reasonable digestible ways to avoid the problems.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK.... good information. It was like a Power Point presentation though. If you are the kind of person who likes details presented in outline form and such, then this is the audio course for you. As I said, everything the professor said was entirely correct and one could learn from it, but I would have preferred something more personable.

[Rob Ilczuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few decent points but it was too much of an over view to really get much out of it. Assertive doesn’t mean aggressive is really the only thing I snagged. Really at most it can help spark an interest or narrow down an area of focus in the topics. About as expected for a 2.5 hours lecture series.

[Brad McKeehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful and short series on assertiveness, communication, and setting boundaries.

[Dee’s Cozy Corner Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great gems.

[Lorene Mozsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!
Life changing.

[Jenelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great audible that was easy to pay attention to. Valid info about communication types and habits/learned behaviors society or family patterns to navigate boundary setting and taking care of oneself.