Voice Dialogue

The inventors of Voice Dialogue are Hal and Sidra Stone (Winkelman). He was originally trained as a Jungian analyst and she is a psychotherapist.

Voice Dialogue takes us into the drama that is our personality. We talk with the players who are our different subpersonalities, “Voices,” or energies—the different roles we play. Before we become aware of them, they possess and control us. As we dialogue with them, we recognize their function in our personality, and learn to respect and honor them and their work.

Our personality is our riches; the number and variety of our subpersonalities is endless. Some of these are the archetypal roles played in the family, parental roles like the good and bad father or mother; the nourishing mother or father; the rejecting, angry, or rational parent. Some are child roles; our Vulnerable, Rebellious, Happy, Sad, Playful, and other child-selves. Some are almost caricatures of behavior: the Inner Critic, who is de voted to criticizing ourselves and others; the Perfectionist, who never fails to inform us that neither we nor anyone else does things well enough; the Pusher, who, insatiable, tells us we have never done enough; the Protector-Controller, directing the players and the game, or trying to. We have other archetypal energies, including mythological and astrological ones, available to support us.

Sometimes quite different energy appears. The client's posture changes. Her body stands differently, moves differently, speaks differently—empowered beyond doubting. The air vibrates differently. The facilitator feels awe. Soul manifests, not as a subpersonality but as a Super-personality.

(Joy Manné, Soul Therapy (North Atlantic Books, Berkeley , CA , 199 7 , pp.1 7 5-1 7 6).