Firewalking on Jupiter A Therapist's Guide to Fearless Self-discovery

Why is this book called Firewalking on Jupiter? An old friend, no longer with us in this life, once called me "firewalker." He told me he called me firewalker because I had a way of living my life as I saw fit, with confidence, not needing to justify who I was or the decisions I made-that this ability was the result of a difficult but necessary process of facing my many personal demons and re-experiencing traumatic events in my childhood. You will find many references in this book to the idea that it is possible to live a life in which you have no fear of any part of yourself or your past because you have accepted yourself fully, including the parts of yourself you may not particularly like. My experience as a therapy client in adulthood, and then later as a therapist helping others, tells me the process is not easy, but it is possible. Although I do not describe in detail the environment of abuse and chaos I survived as a child in this book, I have written about it elsewhere, given talks about it, and may publish someday the memoir I have written about it, called Twelfth Child. My need to fully explore very painful memories and relationships has galvanized my commitment to helping others realize they can do the same-they can become their own firewalkers. Just in case you were wondering, I do realize that it would be pretty difficult to go "Firewalking on Jupiter," where the average temperature is -234 degrees (Fahrenheit). The reference to Jupiter is related to the ideas behind my own emotional path and how I help clients now as a therapist. An interpretation of the ancient symbol for Jupiter (inside the orange circle on the cover) is that it means "soul dominating matter," or "mind over matter." This is a very powerful idea. We did not choose our birth parents, gender, race, or our time in history to be born. If these things define us, then we are nothing but circumstance. This cannot be true. And it isn't true. We have a mind, which gives us the freedom to choose how to respond to our circumstance -this is mind over matter. I have been providing therapy services to clients for over a decade. This book is the result of the work I have done as a client in therapy and then later, as a therapist helping others, learning from my own life experiences and from the struggles my clients bring to my office every day. Whether you are a person searching for your own personal growth or a professional helping others on their path, I want this book to help you learn what I have learned about clients' struggles (without violating confidentiality of course) and how I have been able to help along the way.