|
|
|
|
|
Voice dialogue is a powerful technique for enhancing self-awareness and ultimately leading to greater personal freedom, choice and balance within yourself and in your life. It was created by American psychologists Drs Hal and Sidra Stone, who discovered that not only are our personalities made up of many different selves, which other psychological models are also based on, but that it is possible to dialogue with these selves directly. When a facilitator dialogues with your inner selves using the Voice Dialogue technique, it becomes possible to unhook from being completely identified with the dominant selves in your personality, thereby beginning a process where a new space in your consciousness evolves, which the Stones have named the aware ego. Having an aware ego simply means bringing awareness to your ego, which in Voice Dialogue terms is the dominant part of your personality, or your Primary Self. Most of us have a number of inner selves which work together as our Primary Self. For example, the Inner Critic, Perfectionist, Organiser, Pleaser and Responsible Parent form a typical Primary Self for many adults. Although our primary selves do an amazing job in getting us through life, they also push away those aspects of ourselves which they don't see as useful or which they find painful. Thus we also have Disowned Selves, which are all those parts of us our primary selves don't want around. But just because they are disowned doesn't mean they do not exist. On the contrary, the more deeply disowned a part of us is, the more grief it causes us. By doing Voice Dialogue you can learn how to embrace both your primary and disowned selves. The ideas, feelings and energetic states which are then available to you are greater. Your experience of life will be far richer and more fulfilling, you will be able to make more conscious decisions rather than acting out of habit, and you will have more self-acceptance and self-understanding. Ultimately you can embrace all the selves within you, which you will continue to discover as you live your life. The more you can do this, the more conscious you become. Life itself becomes a guide on how to enhance your aware ego process because the responses you have to the external world reveal the selves within you having those responses. And, in turn, the more aware ego you have, the more understanding you will have of the external world.
Why do Voice Dialogue? To discover who in you is running your life. Is it your ambitious self, your lazy self, your care-taking self, your inner responsible mother, your critical self in partnership with your inner perfectionist, or your spiritual seeker? To gain more choice in how you lead your life. Wouldn’t it be a relief if you have so far been dominated by the part of you who is never satisfied with what you achieve to suddenly feel good about your achievements? Wouldn’t it be great if you have so far been unable to say ‘no’ to requests from others to be able to say ‘no’ and to take care of your own needs? How freeing would it be if you have always been too tired or unmotivated to get out there and live your life to feel stimulated, interested and maybe even charged with energy and determination to do something worthwhile? And what a feeling it would be to know that in your relationship with your partner you could recognise when you fell into habitual patterns of relating which might be hindering your relationship’s growth - or even leading to its decline, and to unhook from those patterns and re-establish a vital and loving connection with each other. To feel more confident in who you are. When you learn about how you work, when you understand the amazing job your personality has done in protecting you and enabling you to survive, you develop a feeling of appreciation for all those inner selves who constitute the unique person you are. You realise that from the first day of your life you have always been a lovable and beautiful human being and that any beliefs contrary to that have been passed to you – often unintentionally – from others, such as parents, caregivers, school teachers, your religion and culture in general.
To understand and
appreciate others, including your partner, children, friends and, on a
broader scale, people from all walks of life. Truly understanding
others leads to greater peace and harmony for all. Enquire about having a Voice Dialogue session Copyright © Astra Niedra and QA Publishing 2003-2008
|
