Practically Shameless: How Shadow Work Helped Me Find My Voice, My Path, and My Inner Gold (Paperback)

~ (Author), Cliff Barry (Foreword), Cindy Kalman (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: risk manager, listless part, inner play, Shadow Work, Never Again, Mary Ellen (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A compelling personal journey through courageous self-discovery and growth that was hard to put down. Alyce travels through her life, revealing her growing inner struggles to escape from her box. She hides nothing. Someone has finally written a book on the pervasive shame that shrouds everyday lives in America. --Mary Walilko, small business owner --Mary Walilko

Alyce Barry allows us to see her shadow, and in the process we see more clearly our own. While doing so she gives us a down-to-earth understanding of Shadow Work. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is tired of living in a box. --John Lee, author of The Flying Boy

Few people ever open the door to their souls and let us in to see the true beauty and authenticity of their being with all its complexity as well as simplicity. This is a very rare thing in my experience. My three-year-old granddaughter does so, but for how long? Soon enough she will learn to put part of herself in shadow, that is for sure, just the way Alyce, in her priceless book, learned to hide her heart as a child. However, Alyce is one of those rare people who, as an adult, has found a way to come out of hiding to let us see with the freshness and innocence of a child's eyes what her heart is truly filled with -- Love!! And all the pain that she went though to open her heart again as a woman after having closed it 'forever' as a child. It takes great courage and real creativity to do what Alyce has done in Practically Shameless. She intimately describes her own powerful healing process in such a way that, in reading her deeply touching words, we feel as if we are actually there going through the Shadow Work steps with her, feeling her fear, doubt, risks, pain, insight and joy right along with her. Alyce's very moving story makes me want to rub elbows with her, and all of the courageous souls who do and lead Shadow Work. A real gem. Cliff Barry's Foreword is just outstanding. --Dr. Leland W. Howe, bestselling co-author of Values Clarification and other books

Review of Audio CD edition: Practically Shameless: How Shadow Work Helped Me Find My Voice, My Path, and My Inner Gold is the unabridged audiobook rendition of author and Shadow Work facilitator Alyce Barry's self-help guide to revitalizing one's life. Barry draws upon her personal story of overcoming depression to explain the human shadow, and the transformative power of the Shadow Work processes. Shadow Work founder Cliff Barry provides a foreword to this helpful guide to positive metamorphosis, which delves into why humans resist change so much and how to tap into one's positive inner sources. Especially recommended for anyone interested in discovering the mental and emotional benefits of shadow work. 5 CDs, 5 hours 32 min. --Midwest Book Review --Midwest Book Review

Both a practical and experiential guide toward understanding the basic concepts of Jungian psychology. Alyce Barry gives us a first-hand account of how she experienced a major life transformation. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how Jungian theory can be masterfully applied to everyday life. --Jim Brooks, M.D., psychiatrist, acupuncturist, facilitator --Jim Brooks, M.D.

Product Description

Practically Shameless is the first book to explain the compassionate psychology of Carl G. Jung through one person's intimate experiences of shadow, including a riveting first-person account of Shadow Work processes. Practically Shameless reveals for the first time the real buying power of archetypes in daily life for creative self-expression, building self-esteem, getting your power back, letting go of destructive behavior patterns, and overcoming depression and the belief that life holds no meaning.

Many books say they will change your life. Practically Shameless actually will, by explaining for the first time the inner mechanics of change and offering an approach that has worked for thousands of people since 1990. Change is hard because there's a part of the self whose job it is to resist change. It does so for the best of reasons -- to protect us from something it considers worse than the change we want to make. Most of us think of our resistance to change as a problem. Practically Shameless reveals for the first time that our resistance is a good guy, not a bad guy, in our inner drama. It demonstrates the surprising key to turning resistance into forward movement: befriending that resistance by honoring the role it's been playing in protecting us. Once honored, our resistance becomes willing to stand down and to take on, with its treasury of information on risks we've faced in the past, a new role as valued ally as we begin to move forward. An exercise in Chapter 19 invites the reader to step into this inner protector to be honored directly by the author and begin making lasting change.

An Appendix on the Shadow Work Model details the specific emotional wound underlying each of the 16 varieties of shadow, to help lift the shame enshrouding it and thus to help facilitate change. With a Foreword by Shadow Work founder Cliff Barry and illustrations by Cindy Kalman, formerly of PBS's McNeil-Lehrer News Hour. See excerpts, additional testimonials from authors and readers, study guides, excerpts from interviews with Alyce's father, and more, at the Practically Shameless Press website. Also available from Amazon on audio CD, unabridged, with an illustrated booklet.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Practically Shameless Press; 1st edition (January 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979832616
• ISBN-13: 978-0979832611
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #431,644 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply touching, hope-inspiring and bittersweet, January 15, 2008

By	Bennie Naude (London) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A beautiful and touching read and a profound reminder of how powerful ShadowWork can be. Bittersweet as I recognised so much of myself (and my struggles)in Alyce and her life experience, it gave me renewed hope that some old, ingrained and painful patterns CAN shift and heal.
Easy to read, follow and understand - no techno mumbo-jumbo, no promises of instant miracles but a personal testament of how she transformed her life with dedication, perseverence, the right tools and support - and a reminder that it is possible for the rest of us.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Personal Growth, January 15, 2008

By	Char Tosi - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Written with simplicity and incredible depth, Alyce takes the very complex concepts of Shadow Work and creates a doorway for both the beginner and the experienced people on the path to knowing themselves. Practically Shameless touched a place in me in a way that I have not touched before, and I have done lots of personal growth work! If you want to take the risk to open up to new possibilities of deepening into your life and widening your horizons, read this book. Your life will be transformed."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practically Shameless, January 15, 2008

By	J. Benham "Open Book" (Longmont, CO) - See all my reviews

Practically Shameless is written by a woman who has experienced great help and healing through a type of "coaching" called Shadow Work. The honesty with which she shares her personal experiences took incredible courage. By taking me with her on that journey, through reading her book, I have begun to understand Shadow Work and a different way of dealing with past issues and injuries which has given me new hope; validated my own experiences and struggles; and also provided wonderful common ground to discuss things that were stirred up as I discussed this book and the information I learned about Shadow Work with friends who also find the book helpful. Most of all, we have found not just common ground, but hope
for progress.
My life is being changed by Shadow Work. Alyce's book is a wonderful introduction to her experience with Shadow Work, and offers a way to show,
not just tell, how people can find hope for healing in all of this.