Are You for Real?

This is a self-help book presented as part memoir and part mental health survival guide from someone who overcame the debilitating effects of PTSD to become a licensed clinical psychologist, college professor and author. The book offers insights into a holistic model of mental health and identifies the specific skills you need to develop to protect yourself from becoming a self-alienated stranger living in a toxic, unpredictable, technology-driven world where suicide is now the leading cause of death, internationally. A practical model of mental health is presented which views psychological problems as the result of inadequate coping skills not as evidence of "mental illness." A model of mental health is presented that acknowledges our mental health is largely dependent on our thinking, our beliefs, and on the nature of our relationships with other people. The book shares a simple and proven method for connecting your conscious rational brain with your unconscious intuitive body which will help you re-discover yourself and your dreams. A model of human communication is shared that identifies empathy as sharing feelings and intimacy as sharing meanings. A model of critical thinking and a set of advanced communication skills are shared and Rene Descartes' dictum, "I think, therefore I am" is challenged; and replaced with the insight, "I feel, therefore I'm real."