What is Voice Dialogue

Voice Dialogue

Parents, get some help from Voice Dialogue with the challenges of child-raising at my blog:
Baby Dialogue

Subscribe in a reader

What is Voice Dialogue?

Voice Dialogue refers to the technique and theoretical structure created by American psychologists, teachers and authors Dr Hal Stone and Dr Sidra Stone, which allows us to experience and integrate the many facets, selves or energy patterns of our psyche. The technique allows us to dialogue with different parts of our personality - the different 'voices' - to discover how those parts operate in us - how they feel, what is important to them, what they want from us, what kinds of rules they have for how we should lead our lives.

This process enables you to become more conscious of who you have been in your life, or of which selves, with their rule systems, you have been identified with.You can then unhook from those selves which have been dominant or primary in your life and begin to explore their opposites. This gives you access to new perspectives, to new energy systems, which not only gives you more inner resources to draw on as you deal with life's challenges, but also a bigger picture of who you are.

By shining your awareness onto the various facets of yourself, you ignite a process where a new space in your consciousness evolves where you can experience your inner selves as distinct from you. So instead of feeling that you are driven, you become aware of the driven part of you and are able to balance it out with an opposite energy such as a relaxed self, meditating self, or even a lazy energy. Rather than feeling self-critical, you can isolate your self-critical voice and bring objectivity to it from your self-accepting side.

The Drs Stone have named this always fluid state of consciousness the Aware Ego. Because the aware ego is a process rather than a state, where you bring awareness to your ego, or to who you had always thought you were, one can not say one has an aware ego. An aware ego is what enables you to stand beside a self and experience it and also its opposite - being able to accept both. The aware ego is the essence, the core, the real gift of the voice dialogue system. No other technique that I am aware of allows you to sit in between selves and feel both, yet also not identifying with either. It is a space of true choice and freedom, and is something which needs to be experienced to be understood.

By doing Voice Dialogue you gain access to, and acceptance of, more of who you are. The ideas, feelings and energetic states which become available to you are greater. You realise that it is normal to be multi-faceted, that when you make a decision there is another part of you who would prefer to do something else, that you can enjoy caring for your children but also want time to yourself without them, that you can enjoy the theatre and also sport, that you have spiritual inclinations but also want material comforts. By embracing more of your inner selves and their often conflicting needs, you will be able to make more conscious decisions rather than acting out of habit or compulsion. You will have more self-acceptance and self-understanding, as well as understanding and acceptance of others.