Author untangles 'twisted thinking'

"The most honest people I've ever met are convicts," says Jerry Price, local author, consultant and pastor. "Anyone can be honest without being open."

Price is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and seminar leader on various topics associated with marriage, the family, and issues related to how unhealthy thinking can affect personal as well as organizational relationships. He recently returned from a trip to Prescott, Arizona, where he held motivational sessions for a group of Major League Baseball players.

His 2003 book, "Twisted Thinking Transformed," seeks to dissect and analyze the contorted thought templates of the criminal mind, and reveals how anyone can enjoy a life of responsibility and openness.

"I think everybody displays some twisted thinking at some point in their lives," Price said. "Hey, I know this stuff personally. I come from a family of bootleggers and crooks. My grandmother was even a madame in a brothel."

Price is also the founder and developer of The Star Energizer, a specialized test which helps people realize their successful thinking patterns. His love for people, their success and their desire to have healthy relationships has been the foundation of his 40-year career.

"This book is about recognizing where deep changes have to happen before irresponsible people can genuinely move toward others with respect and love. It shows how they can become a S.T.A.R., a Straight Thinker who Accepts Responsibility, stimulating people to discover who they are so they can flourish," Price said.

Price spent most of his life in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and attended the Bible Institute there.

"I went there to play some basketball and do some studying. They had a great team," he said.

He entered into counseling and ministry work while engaged in private practice in Wisconsin, then moved to Sisters last year with his wife, Judy.

In 1990, working as a specialist in forensic counseling with Sheboygan County Social Services in Wisconsin, Price developed an original and effective treatment model for the criminal population.

That change process included renewing a person's thinking in the context of relationships and accountability. Since then, he's been applying those same principles to marital and family conflicts, people struggling with habitually irresponsible behaviors, and consulting organizations looking to reinforce employer/employee relationships.

"All success begins in the mind," Price argues. "My book encourages successful thinking to promote responsible decision making, so we can experience what our hearts long for. When we understand how we're thinking, we can better see where we're really headed on any life stage. God's mandate for community in the Book of Genesis is to live a life of open and unashamed relationships. Our thinking processes are a lot like getting to the summit of a mountain. Some paths can take us off course, limiting our ability to get to the top and enjoy the best view possible."

The rehab program was an outgrowth from an important 1970s study by Dr. Stanton Samenow. From 1970 through 1978, Dr. Samenow worked as a clinical research psychologist with the Program for the Investigation of Criminal Behavior in Washington, D.C., with Dr. Samuel Yochelson. The findings of their clinical research-treatment study of offenders were published in the three-volume set entitled "The Criminal Personality."

"It was state-of-the-art at the time and became the cornerstone of my work and book. In the study, more than 3,000 inmates were interviewed and there was a certain pattern of thinking and decision-making common to all," Price said.

The exhaustive study mapped the dark labyrinths of the criminal mind, for the first time with careful and delicate attention to their boundaries.

"Prisons are a seedbed for twisted thinkers because they are not there to change, but only to be accountable for the specific crime they were charged and convicted of, with no measurable change in their overall mode of thinking," Price explains.

"Twisted Thinking Transformed" takes each particular thinking error and unwraps it to see how it looks, its makeup and how it takes root in the mind. Within the pages are over 200 antidotes and tools to utilize and implement. The reader can step back and see the components of those errors.

"There are 10 patterns of twisted thinking illuminated in the book," Price notes. "They all network together, rarely operate alone and always lead to habitual irrational and/or illegal activity. At the end of each chapter there are corrections to practice, which allow the healing process to begin. They are tools of redemption, pointing the twisted thinker in a responsible direction, where the conscience can be recovered and they can be more connected to God and you. It's miraculous when that happens."

"Twisted Thinking Transformed" can be found at your local bookstore. More information on Price's book, programs and seminars can be found at http://www.starenergizer.com or call 541-678-2552.