A Bit About Me and What You’ll Find Here

Voice Dialogue has helped me enormously, in all areas of my life, and so I do this work to help others too.

It’s been the reason I’m still in my relationship with my husband of over 25 years. And it’s the reason I get on so well with all three of my daughters – ranging in age from 15 to almost 21.

I actually don’t know how people can be in long-term relationships without understanding what’s going on when issues arise. Even just being aware that different selves within me will feel differently about the same situation has helped. And bonding patterns, the underlying blueprints that all relationships are based on – knowing about those and how they work has been a life saver.

If that weren’t enough, here’s more:

Voice Dialogue has enabled me to realise that when I’m feeling anxious, it’s a younger part of myself (an aspect of my Inner Child) that feels overwhelmed. And so when I draw on a more capable and fearless adult part of me to take care of that child, my anxiety eases.

It enables me to realise that when I get a headache or migraine, I’ve become over-identified with my inner Pusher and Perfectionist. I used to get migraines regularly but now not so often as I’ve learnt to become aware when my Pusher has taken over – either I’m up late working, or I’m stuck on doing something until it’s just right, or I’m simply wanting to finish watching a TV series in one go when I could just watch the rest another day.

It enables me to set appropriate boundaries more easily. There are parts of me who have a more impersonal energy than I normally inhabit, and so I intentionally invite those parts in when I go to the shops or need to behave in a more businesslike manner. Or when I simply want time to myself, such as when taking my daughter to soccer practice and I don’t want to chat with the other parents, even though another part of me thinks I should, and yet another part would really enjoy the social interaction.

There are countless more examples of how I use Voice Dialogue in my life on a day-to-day basis.

“We consider Astra Niedra to be an outstanding teacher, trainer and facilitator of the Voice Dialogue process and its attendant theoretical structure relating to the Psychology of the Aware Ego… You are fortunate to have her with you in Sydney.”Hal Stone PhD and Sidra Stone PhD

Some of the content here is from my original email newsletter Daily Voice Dialogue. And some of the parenting material is from my old blog Baby Dialogue. I’m adding new content as time goes on.

I’ve included explanatory material about the ideas in Voice Dialogue, including techniques and exercises you can use in your everyday life, and more personal posts.

My aim is to share information that can help you with the challenges we all face in our lives. Challenges such as finding the ability to express more of ourselves so we can feel fulfilled; moving from ‘stuckness’ and finding new ways forward; separating from the need to behave in a particular way, such as to please, to overwork, to not work enough, to always be right, to worry too much.

You can use the ideas here for general personal growth and consciousness expansion and to help with deep healing. It is compatible with most healing methods and therapies.

The information here will help you to understand and accept yourself and others, to communicate and resolve conflict more effectively, and to improve your relationships.

It will help you realise you have the capacity for greater choice in how you experience your life; that you can change old patterns and find new ways of feeling, behaving and relating.

I believe this work can bring a great deal more joy to the world. As more people realise there’s far more to each of us than appears, and that we have more choice than we have allowed for ourselves, and that we can transform our relationships and the way we parent our children, then we can start to enrich and improve not only our own lives but the lives of those we come into contact with.

My Experience with Voice Dialogue

I was first introduced to Voice Dialogue in my late teens. In my 20s I went to workshops – including some presented by Voice Dialogue’s creators Drs Hal and Sidra Stone, both in the United States and in Australia – and I had sessions with facilitators.

I practised doing Voice Dialogue with my partner, who later became my husband, and we still use this work in our relationship and to help with raising our children. (If you’d like to know how to create a fulfilling relationship that lasts, where both you and your partner can continue to grow, check out my book The Perfect Relationship.)

I’ve worked as a Voice Dialogue facilitator and I’ve presented Voice Dialogue workshops. I’ve promoted Voice Dialogue at the Mind Body Spirit Festival in Sydney many years ago. I’ve written newsletters, articles, blogs and books on personal growth with Voice Dialogue. I’ve edited other people’s books that included material on Voice Dialogue. And I’ve written a book on motherhood as a consciousness path (Enlightenment Through Motherhood), which includes ideas from Voice Dialogue.

As a facilitator I’ve used Voice Dialogue to help clients with all kinds of personal and relationship issues, and for general personal and consciousness growth.

I’m particularly interested in helping women to grow more fully into who they are, and in helping both men and women to become conscious of the patriarchal conditioning we’ve all been subjected to so that all people can become whole and live more fulfilling lives. (See my post on the Inner Patriarch regarding this.)

Parenting my three daughters has probably provided the greatest lessons for me, and Voice Dialogue has helped me to gain more value from those lessons and to be a better parent than I otherwise would have. (See my parenting posts here.)

What You’ll Find Here

You’ll find information on how relationships work, decision-making and goal-setting, parenting more consciously, mastering your energy field to set healthy boundaries and have more choice in how you connect with others, dealing with perfectionism and stress, accessing creativity through your inner Magical Child, and communicating better.

You’ll find ideas on the difference between spirituality, spiritual rules, awareness and consciousness.

I’ve categorised the information into sections: Your Personal Growth, Conscious Relationships, Conscious Parenting, Our Shared World, Fast Facts and Meet Some Selves.

To learn more about what Voice Dialogue is read my home page and then read this page on Voice Dialogue’s benefits.

If you’d like to try a Voice Dialogue session, check out this page with links to facilitators worldwide.

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A More Formal Bio

Astra Niedra is a Voice Dialogue facilitator and teacher who writes about Voice Dialogue, the Psychology of Selves and the Aware Ego Process, and how to use Voice Dialogue in relationships, parenting and personal growth. Astra trained in Voice Dialogue with its creators Drs Hal and Sidra Stone and with other teachers, and has been facilitating and teaching since 1996.

Astra Niedra is author of the books The Perfect Relationship, Enlightenment Through Motherhood and Which Self Are You?. She has written articles for magazines and web sites, and she wrote the Daily Voice Dialogue newsletter and blog and the Baby Dialogue blog. She has edited the books of other personal growth teachers, she has worked as an editor in health, legal and education publishing, she has been Editor of WellBeing magazine (when she published the magazine’s first feature on Voice Dialogue), and she edited and project managed the beyondblue Research Summaries 2007-2010 book. (beyondblue is an Australian non-profit organisation which promotes awareness of depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders and related mental health disorders.)

Voice Dialogue in Daily Life is the successor to Astra’s first website and the Daily Voice Dialogue newsletter and blog, as well as the Baby Dialogue blog. Astra’s first Voice Dialogue site went live in 1998.

Astra has a BA in Philosophy and Education. She has also studied meditation and various types of yoga for almost three decades and has trained in the Japanese healing art Rei-ki I and II.

Astra wrote the script for Catarotti – The Cat Detective, an interactive musical show for young children about a jazz-singing cat detective who solves crimes against endangered species with a group of cat detectives known as SKAT by day and The Skat Kats band by night.

She is currently working on a book inspired by her grandmother’s secret WWII love letters.

Astra has recently moved from Sydney to the Gold Coast, Australia, with her husband, their three children, and their cheeky and adorable dog Puck.

(For more photos of Puck and of scenery around the Gold Coast, Northern NSW, Sydney and other favourite places, follow me on Instagram. You can also follow the Voice Dialogue in Daily Life Instagram page.)

Puck