Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves & the Aware Ego

The McCanns offer workshops, seminars, and trainings in Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves and the Aware Ego. The Level One training (which carries CE units for MFTs, LCSW's and RNs) is required by Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone for advancement and participation in their Level II and III workshops and seminars.

What is Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves and the Aware Ego?

Voice dialogue is a powerful, transformational technique which increases self-awareness and ultimately advances personal freedom, choice and balance in yourself and in your life.

Developed by the American psychologists, Drs Hal and Sidra Stone, Voice Dialogue and its underlying theoretical base, the psychology of Selves and of the Aware Ego, have their roots in Jungian theory. The Stones discovered that not only are our personalities made up of many different subpersonalities or selves, but it is possible to dialogue with these selves and separate them out one from another. By accomplishing this through the Voice Dialogue technique, one can then create space for another aspect of consciousness called the Aware Ego.

Starting an Aware Ego process through Voice Dialogue, enables you to stand between opposite parts of your psyche, and not identify with either “voice”. The choices opened are real choices as you are not just carried along with the beliefs expressed by one particular self.

Voice Dialogue is an experiential technique in which a facilitator engages in a dialogue directly with the various parts of your psyche. The aim is to discover the parts of your psyche with which you have become identified, to gain awareness of these parts and discern how they have been affecting you and your life. And then to ultimately separate from these parts so that you can start to take charge rather than one of your selves or subpersonalities serve as the decision-maker.

The Voice Dialogue facilitator can ask to speak with your Inner Critic, your Perfectionist, your Pleaser, your Responsible Parent or whichever self with whom you are identified. After you have separated from these primary selves), and you have what is now a more Aware Ego from which to make your decisions, you can meet the many other aspects of you psyche perhaps previously unknown to you or with which you might not have had access to previously.

These members of your 'inner family' of selves are just as real as the members of your outer family; they are complete selves in themselves, with their own feelings, opinions and needs. By communicating with them using the Voice Dialogue method, you become aware of how they have been affecting your feelings and behavior. You also discover what you can do to satisfy the needs of each self so that each self is your ally, working with and for you rather than against you.

So if you sense that you are not expressing yourself fully, or that one part of your personality is dominating your life — perhaps your Pusher, your Pleaser or your Lazy Self — you can discover the needs of that self. When you have a good understanding and are no longer completely identified with that self, you can access the opposite self which yearns to have a voice. When conscious of the mechanisms at work, you can assume more responsibility for your feelings and actions. You have choice.

The goal with Voice Dialogue is to expand your awareness so that you can embrace all the selves within you; your more Aware Ego can begin to orchestrate your life, you will experience greater personal freedom and choice, and you will develop self-acceptance and self-understanding which will lead to a more fulfilling experience of life.

Please inquire by phone or e-mail if you are interested in learning more about Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves & the Aware Ego.