The Courage to Feel: A Practical Guide to the Power and Freedom of Emotional Honesty

NEW: second edition published in 2021

“Emotions are complex things. They can make life hell or make it sweet. So, here’s a question: do you have emotions or do emotions have you? Andrew Seubert’s The Courage to Feel can help you to have emotions and make your life rich and workable. It’s short, easy to understand and very powerful.” ― BILL O’HANLON, AUTHOR OF DO ONE THING DIFFERENT

Many people live partial lives, keeping their vitality under emotional mufflers and living life without ever feeling like an adult. The Courage to Feel delivers a pragmatic, creative and inspiring four-step path to emotional mastery and freedom that explores the hidden wealth of guidance and wisdom available through our emotions. Each chapter includes anecdotes, applications and exercises to anchor the teachings along with the charming allegory of Simon the Turtle who must leave his shell to follow his heart is woven throughout the book.

Based on the authors 25+ years' experience with thousands of clients, this book will launch you on a journey that leads to personal freedom, happier marriages, improved work relationships, and deeper spirituality.

Andrew Seubert, LMHC , NCC, is the co-founder of ClearPath Psychospiritual Center on Seneca Lake in Burdett, N.Y. A licensed psychotherapist for over 40 years, he has an extensive background in Existential-Gestalt Therapy and in music therapy, and has provided EMDR consultation and training for clinicians. He is the senior editor of Trauma-informed Approaches to Eating Disorders (2018).

When in active practice, Andrew specialized in working with trauma, post-traumatic stress, and eating disorders. Now in transition, his focus is the integration of spirituality and psychotherapy.

Andrew lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

Andrew is:

• co-author of a chapter in the Oxford University Press, EMDR Edition: EMDR in the Treatment of the Spectrum of Eating Disorders (2026) 
• senior editor of Trauma-Informed Approaches to Eating Disorders (2nd ed.,2023) 
• author of The Courage to Feel: A practical guide to the power and freedom of emotional honesty (2nd ed. 2021) 
• author of How Simon Left His Shell (2015), a fable and User’s Guide based on The Courage to Feel, to teach children and adolescents emotional honesty
• author of the article, Becoming Known: A relational model utilizing Gestalt and Ego State assisted EMDR in treating eating disorders, published in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research (2018) 
• co-author of the use of EMDR with clients with intellectual disability in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research (2011)
• author of several chapters in EMDR Solutions (2005), EMDR Solutions II (2009), and Cultural Competence and Healing Culturally Based Trauma with EMDR (2016)

Marc Rubin is an oil painter, award-winning graphic designer, and avid doodler from Elmira, New York. An accomplished artist, he is best known for his soul-full, still-life renderings that pique viewers’ imaginations, invoking curiosity about the stories behind the objects represented in layers of paint, seen as magical pools of light. Similar to the traditional Dutch painters Vermeer and Rembrandt, Rubin finds inspiration everywhere he looks, his paintings relaying relationships between everyday objects. Through his skillful use of technique and brush manipulation, Rubin pushes and nudges paint into sensual and emotionally charged renderings. His work has been featured in art galleries on the East and West coast. Over the last few years, Marc has explored a visual form of storytelling―doodle illustrations digitally rendered. This form has taken his drawings to new and, at times, satirical heights, flooded with the delightful colors of a digital palette.