Shelley Stokes

Sit Down and Dialogue with Yourself Shelley Stokes

Sit Down and Dialogue with Yourself: Understanding the Multiplicity of Our Self-States is about finding, listening to, and giving voice to the many internal voices that come from the varying self-states that comprise that vital, subjective core of authentic self-expression that is the center of that complex entity we call "me." Its basic premises are grounded in much of psychologist and psychoanalyst Philip Bromberg's writings on self-states, enactments, and dissociation, particularly as articulated in his books, Standing in the Spaces, Awakening the Dreamer, and The Shadow of the Tsunami. In this book we attempt to not only capture Dr. Bromberg's contributions in their foundations but also to take them into new directions that are uniquely our own in addressing what we believe to be centrally important psychological, motivational, emotional, and interpersonal processes involved in the development and practice of real-self expression as articulated by such psychoanalysts and writers as James Masterson. This is the third book in a trilogy that we have written together which explores the theme of becoming and expressing one's real self-the first being Letting Go and Taking the Chance to be Real and the second, The Trauma of Shame and the Making of the Self. In each of these books, many practical everyday examples, as well as clinical vignettes, are provided for both the general reader and the seasoned professional.