Real-Self Expression Exploring the Dimensionalities of Who We Are From the Authors of Letting Go and Taking the Chance to be Real

Book excerpt: This book is about exploring the dimensionalities of who we are as we strive to communicate the deeper aspects of our being. Giving creative voice to "real-self expression" requires our establishing true communication with a deeper consciousness within us — a turning inward to capture and seize the thoughts, experiences, emotions, and myriad of memories that reside inside our mind — to push beyond the limitation of words and to stand in the spaces between what may seem to be inharmonious aspects of our self to find synchrony. This is the gift of our psychic symphony. The only question is one of what we will compose. Sherron Lewis and Shelley Stokes The authors, Shelley Stokes, Ph.D. and Sherron Lewis, LMFT, have been pursuing a conceptual, clinical and experiential exploration of the many dimensions and phenomena contained in the human struggles inherent in knowing, being, expressing and living as an expression of SELF that is more REAL and less a manifestation of distorting, inhibiting, fear inducing and submissiveness to accommodate to the perceived demands and expectations of external forces and emotionally important relationships. In this, their latest effort in this endeavor, they continue to employ a methodology that includes clinical theoretical formulations, neuropsychological findings, poetic and philosophical offerings, spiritual references, clinical therapeutic vignettes, and personal reflections. Throughout their writings, Lewis and Stokes, creatively share aspects of their own personal explorations and reflections on their journeys to greater self-authenticity and freedom of expressions of the self. In fact, it is through their use of personal self-disclosures, that they offer the reader a form of interpersonal experiential intimacy in teaching and encouraging the same in the reader's journey of self-discovering and expression, thus making accessible to the reader, especially the non-clinical professionals, a greater access to integrated knowing through concepts, emotions, reflections and experiences. Through this unique approach, the authors engage in a powerful means of communication by inviting the reader to personally engage in the demanding, complex, exciting, energizing and releasing effort to get beyond habitual ways of being in finding, creating and expressing that which has been waiting to be brought to greater fruition in REAL-SELF expression. Errol F. Leifer, PhD., ABPP ABN FABN Sherron Lewis is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in Northern California. She specializes in individual and interpersonal conflict and personal development. Her theoretical orientation is a blend of psychodynamic, attachment, and family systems theories. She has enjoyed conducting many workshops on a variety of topics relating to parenting, shame, and real self-expression. The focal areas of her practice are: individual, couples, and family therapy, multilevel intervention, and clinical consultation. She also has enjoyed being a freelance artist for the past thirty-five years. Shelley Stokes is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Northern California. He received his certification in psychoanalytic psychotherapy from the Masterson Institute in 1994 and has had a long-standing practice treating adults and families. He has conducted many workshops and taught extensively on a variety of topics related to understanding and treating disorders of the self. In addition to coauthoring three recent books with Sherron, his other writings have included Disorders of the Self: Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Borderline Personality Organization, Non-Pathologic Object Use in the Process of Therapeutic Change: Winnicott Revisited, and The Culturally Different Patient in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.