“[The Tools] deliver spiritual and psychological transformation.”
—ADAM MCKAY, FILM DIRECTOR
Meet the Authors
Phil Stutz and Barry Michels are the authors of Coming Alive and The Tools, a New York Times bestseller.
Referred to as “the most sought-after shrinks in Hollywood” by Lawrence O’Donnell and “an open secret in Hollywood” by The New Yorker, Barry and Phil’s client list boasts top writers, actors, producers, CEOs, and other creatives.
In their books and public events, they share the same tools they use behind closed doors with their clients.
PHIL STUTZ
Phil Stutz is the creator of The Tools®.
With his coauthor, Barry Michels, he wrote the New York Times bestseller The Tools, and its sequel, Coming Alive.
Phil graduated from City College in New York, received his MD from New York University, and did his psychiatric training at Metropolitan Hospital. He then worked as a prison psychiatrist on Rikers Island before going into private practice in New York City. He moved to Los Angeles In 1982, where he has been practicing ever since.
BARRY MICHELS
With his coauthor, Phil Stutz, Barry Michels wrote the New York Times bestseller The Tools in 2012, and its sequel, Coming Alive, in 2017.
Barry was profiled in the March 21, 2011 issue of The New Yorker (“Hollywood Shadows, A Cure For Blocked Screenwriters,” by Dana Goodyear.). Featured by Joel Stein in Time Magazine, he has also been interviewed by Dr. Oz, Lawrence O’Donnell, and Charlie Rose, and has appeared on ABC’s Nightline.
He has published numerous articles online in Psychology Today, Salon, and Quora.
Barry has given workshops at a variety of venues, including In goop Health summits in Los Angeles in 2017, in Vancouver in 2018, and in London in 2019. He has given a Google Talk, and has spoken at 20th Century Fox Television, the University Club of Chicago, the Omega Institute, the Writers’ Guild, the 92nd Street Y, and the Endeavor 2019 annual retreat.
Barry received his A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1975, his J.D. (law degree) from University of California Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall), in 1979, and his M.S.W. from U.S.C. School of Social Work in 1984.
He maintains a clinical practice in Los Angeles and teaches internationally.