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 BoyFew 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.
See all Editorial Reviews
by Robert Bly
by Ross Bishop
