Book by Gerry Schroeder, PhD
The Journey to Emotional Self-Reliance
Are you in a challenging or painful situation?
Are you not sure what to do or how to resolve your dilemma?
Have you turned to your usual sources of information, support, love, and guidance only to discover they are not always available when you need them—or they are no longer working for you?
Do you wonder how you will make the right decisions and support yourself when you are left to find your own way?
The Journey to Emotional Self-Reliance is a practical guidebook that teaches you how to find your own way when you are alone, lost, or afraid. As you begin reading, you will find yourself as the main character on an imaginary journey of self-discovery. As you experience "The Journey," you will have the opportunity to gain valuable life lessons and personal practices that will prepare you for learning the Five-Step Practice of Emotional Self-Reliance. When you apply this Five-Step Practice to your own life, you can develop a source of internal guidance that will help you to:
Take responsibility for your life.
Support yourself emotionally.
Make practical decisions that are in your best interest.
Gerry Schroeder, PhD (a.k.a. Gerald Lynn Schroeder) is a clinical psychologist who has been in private practice in Santa Barbara, California, since 1976. Originally from Hillsboro, Kansas, he received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas in 1973. Dr. Schroeder specializes in body-centered psychotherapy—focusing on breath, movement, muscle tension, posture, and body awareness to gain insight into psychological trauma and to guide patients toward greater health and well-being. He is a passionate catalyst for personal growth, healing, and transformation. Outside his clinical work, Gerry is an avid horseman—having recently fulfilled his lifelong heart’s desire of working with horses. He lives near Santa Barbara, California.
Introduction to The Journey to Emotional Self-Reliance
by Gerry Schroeder, PhD
As a psychologist, I have been welcoming people, who are much like you, into my office for the past 40 years. They are up against something difficult or painful, and they do not know exactly what it is or how to resolve it. They feel lost and confused and are looking for direction.
I watch them closely and notice what their facial expression is telling me. I observe how they walk and move because it reveals how they have tightened their muscles and contained themselves in response to past traumas. Their breathing pattern and energy level lets me know if they are anxious or depressed.
I find myself having great compassion for people’s injuries and how they continue to suffer. I grow to love and care about each individual as we work together and listen closely to discover the source of their pain, the desires of their heart, and the choices that are in their best interest.
I have written this book to share with you some of the principles and practices that I have found to be most helpful for people in resolving their personal dilemmas.
This book will not give you a direct answer to your dilemma. Rather, it provides a framework that guides you to turn your attention inside yourself for answers and support when your external sources have failed you, and you are feeling alone, lost, and afraid.
It is my hope that this information can help you find your way through your own difficult situations or important decisions.
I have chosen to communicate these teachings to you through a fictional story called “The Journey.” I invite you to come along with me on this imaginary journey to work through the dilemma of finding your own way, when you must rely on yourself.
“The Journey” guides you through a series of personal challenges and discoveries. This story might not represent your exact life circumstances or struggles. However, by imagining a different experience than our own—in which something difficult is accomplished—we often gain wisdom and strength that can be helpful in our own lives.
On this imaginary journey, you will be challenged to consider: “What do I really want from others . . . and how can I give this to myself?”
As you experience “The Journey” and read the accompanying commentary, you will have an opportunity to gain valuable life lessons and personal practices that will prepare you for learning the Five-Step Practice of Emotional Self-Reliance. When you apply this Five-Step Practice to your own life, you can develop a source of internal guidance that will help you to:
· Take responsibility for your life.
· Support yourself emotionally.
· Make practical decisions that are in your best interest.
Only you know what is truly in your best interest. You will learn to recognize the clues within yourself to help you identify this truth.
Memorizing the Five Steps is easy—you can read them in less than a minute. However, you will gain little by merely reciting the Five Steps, unless you can also experience them internally and apply them when situations come up that test you. This will take courage, determination, discipline, and practice. Your confidence will grow as you experience success with their application.
Becoming emotionally self-reliant is not something that is mastered immediately. It is an ongoing journey. You may be tempted many times to turn back to your old familiar ways, especially when it is difficult or you feel uncertain. You may find momentary comfort or relief in again doing what you have always done—even though it is not working anymore.
By choosing to continue traveling along on this journey, doing the challenging and rewarding work suggested in the commentary, and learning the Five-Step Practice of Emotional Self-Reliance, you can establish yourself as your own best guide, advisor, companion, and friend.
You will then be able to find your own way based on something that exists much deeper inside you.
In life, there are moments of opportunity when a door or window opens briefly and then closes again. You have an opportunity at this moment to open yourself to learn something new.
Are you ready? Let’s get started.
Your journey begins . . .