I want to buy that bubble gum I had as a kid, you remember the large pink stuff that cost about a penny. You could blow the most amazing bubbles, which almost covered your face. I want to stand in the middle of Asda and blow the largest bubble ever What stops me? I am a 53 year-old mother of three, a grandmother of eight. I am a counsellor, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. It is not what I am supposed to do. It is not how others would expect me to behave. So do I live my life as I believe others want me to or do I stand in Asda and blow bubbles? That is what this book is about, it is a journey through our lives to look at what has changed us from being who we really want to be, who we really are. It helps us to understand the beliefs that we adapt, the feelings that we hide and the thoughts that effect the way we feel, how we behave and that we also feel unable to express It will demonstrate how we become the people that we think other people want us to be losing a sense of who we really are in the process. Many self help books will promise you success, wealth, love or many wonderful things, if you just read the book. I find this difficult to understand, as human psychopathology is a very complex subject. Emotional intelligence and emotional growth is a life long journey, so I can not promise you this. What I can promise you though is a tool to help you on that journey, a different road to travel by and a deeper understanding of your own pathology and ways in which to change the personality traits that you have developed over the years that are not helpful to you. Somewhere along our life journey we lose our real selves and become exhausted by the different masks that we wear. This can eventually lead to psychological illnesses such as depression, stress and anxiety. It can lead to substance misuse, broken relationships, anger, resentments and unfulfilling lives. This book will help you to begin to drop some of those masks and be your own unique self. It will help you to begin to accept yourself and subsequently be accepted for who you are by significant others. It will enable you to begin to love freely, to offer acceptance to other people and in the process it will increase your energy levels, leaving you feeling more alive than you have in years. My motivation for writing this book is that we are living in an age where therapy is becoming more and more difficult to access, waiting lists are far too long and brief therapy appears to be the answer to everyones problems, I learned during my own therapeutic journey both as a client and as a therapist many tools that can help us to begin to learn more about ourselves and change the things that are impacting on our lives in a negative way. I wanted to share those tools with therapists and clients to empower people to get back in touch with their true selves. There is nothing wrong with being you. Although this book is by no means a tool to replace therapy, nothing can beat the process of a good therapeutic relationship and the excellent work that therapists worldwide do. It is a tool to start you on that journey, to give you an insight into different therapeutic models and to give you an appreciation on what therapy is about, how it works and how it can change your life and the way that you function as a human being. If I do decide to stand in Asda and blow the largest bubble ever, what will happen to me? Will I die? Will I be sectioned to the nearest psychiatric hospital? Will I stop being loved or accepted? Someone might laugh. I may even get envied for my sense of freedom, my ability to have fun. So, if you see me in Asda blowing bubbles I hope that you will join me And if you ever meet me, please give me permission to be me, as I will you.