Neal Allen offers a radically new method to get that snarky or belittling voice out of your head. He says his practical, simple approach can work for anyone who worries too much, gets hemmed in by bad thoughts, procrastinates out of fear, or generally gets down on themselves a little or a lot. His talk will include a hands-on demonstration of the technique.

Allen’s approach instantly separates out the superego/inner critic as a visible unwelcome creature, begins a dialogue with it, and allows you to uncover and directly examine the creature’s bullying statements. He says a clear picture of a long-in-the-tooth facsimile of an absent parent emerges, still treating the reader or patient as a child, bullying them with hackneyed bumper-sticker commands. Would you rather be an adult, or continue to believe that you need childish reminders? With repetition, drawing out the bully and examining it reduces its influence, results in a marked decline in anxiety, and allows freedom to enter.

About the Speakers

Neal Allen is a spiritual coach and writer whose work centers on removing the obstacles of the ego and offering tools for freedom. He is the author of Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic, 2023 from Namaste Publishing. He published Shapes of Truth: Discover God Inside You in 2021. Allen has written for newspapers, general interest magazines, and literary journals. A former journalist and corporate executive, he earned a master’s degrees in political science from Columbia University and one in Eastern classics from St. John’s College. He lives with his wife, the writer Anne Lamott, in Marin County.

Luisa Cruz Smith is the editor-in-chief of Penzler Publishers, which includes The Mysterious Press, Scarlet, Crime Ink, and American Mystery Classics. She began her literary career at Book Passage bookstore where she continues to work in her role as buying director, giving her the opportunity to meet with publishers and authors across the country. Her editing career began with freelance editing before becoming the editor in chief of Scarlet, a newly formed suspense imprint at Penzler Publishers. In 2022 Luisa was promoted to editor-in-chief of all of the Penzler imprints, including Mysterious Press, which has published some of the greatest mystery writers of all time.