August / September 2006

VOICE DIALOGUE IN 2006: 19 Practitioners
— Dassie Hoffman

It has been 34 years since the birth of Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of the Selves, developed by Drs. Hal Stone and Sidra Stone in Los Angeles, and evolving from their relationship with each other. Hal had been trained as a Jungian analyst, and Sidra’s work was deeply influenced by the work of Skinner. “We went past our rational minds (our usual way of looking at the world) to investigate the many selves that make up the human psyche,” says Sidra. Originally presented as a technique for self-exploration, Voice Dialogue has expanded its range of ideas by developing the Psychology of the Selves, the Aware Ego Process, and a new vision of consciousness.

PUBLICATIONS BY THE STONES Embracing Our Selves (1985); Embracing Each Other (1989); Embracing Your Inner Critic (1993); Partnering (2000), You Don’t Have to Write a Book (1997); Embracing Heaven and Earth (1985, Hal Stone); The Shadow King (1997, Sidra Stone) 23 CDs, 1 DVD, 6 Videos. Available at voicedialogue.org. The CD The Psychology of the Transference presents their unique ideas about transference and countertransference, placed in the framework of the Psychology of the Selves.

The Psychology of the Selves postulates that the human personality is multidimensional, comprising countless Selves. Each of these Selves is a subpersonality, with its own voice, energy patterns, history, and ways of viewing the world. The more dominant Selves are called the Primary Selves. These are the first Selves to develop within the personality, and are responsible for our early survival because they evolved to protect our initial vulnerability. The Primary Selves are always responsive to the mores of the family, its religion, its ethnicity, and the culture in which it lives.

These Primary Selves continue to develop throughout our lifespan, helping us through school, and into the different phases of life. Sometimes an entirely new set of Primary Selves takes over the personality. We tend to think of our Primary Selves as “who we are.” This is not entirely true, since for each and every Primary Self, there is an energetically equal Disowned Self, which exists within the personality. These are Selves that were originally unacceptable within our family of origin for one reason or another. Although we have repressed these Selves, they are still energetically present within the Self-system. We learn to identify the disowned Selves by examining who we despise, or idolize.

When Hal and Sidra Stone married in 1977, it was their evolving relationship that led them into new discoveries about the operations of the Selves. They examined the role of the Selves in relationship, and discovered bonding patterns, the automatic ways the Selves react to each other. These discoveries grew into a “technology of relationships, and included a new element, the energetic interactions within relationships.”

A Voice Dialogue facilitation allows us to separate from these Primary and Disowned Selves, and to develop an Aware Ego. The Aware Ego serves an executive function, helping us to balance between the opposite Selves, and to make choices in our lives. During a facilitation, the participant can speak from two or more Selves; since the Selves sit in different places within the room, the separation between the Selves is clearly made physical. This process allows the participant (and the facilitator) to have a deeper knowledge of each Self, and to learn about the rules, concerns, and history of each Self. Each such facilitation develops the Aware Ego further, allowing the participant to stand between the demands and needs of the different Selves. The hope is that the development of an Aware Ego permits choices to be made from a more balanced place, rather than from a Self. Many Voice Dialogue facilitators throughout the world refer to their work as the Aware Ego Process.

Go to www.voicedialogue.org

VOICE DIALOGUE PIONEERS AND PRACTITIONERS

MARTHALOU COHEN, Ph.D., developed and directed the Mountain Oaks Voice Dialogue Center in Idyllwild, California, and is a cofounder of the Southern California Voice Dialogue Institute. She wrote The AEP Workbook: Practical Exercises for Deepening Our Life Process (November 2005). “Every time we present the Voice Dialogue technique and the Aware Ego Process, it is important to have an informed notion of the primary self system of the group who is receiving this training. Furthermore, we need to be aware of the specific way they language the relevant concepts. With these simple principles in mind, it becomes possible to teach this work in a wide variety of settings. “Each culture or subculture has its own set of values, perceptions ofreality, and sense of its place in the world. Although each individual has his or her unique take on this (and each self within us has its particular point of view), groups share some commonly held beliefs. While it is important not to stereotype groups, it is also essential to be aware of their sense of identity, their limits on what can be said publicly, and the way in which they formulate their impressions of human behavior. For example, the thought that we have inner selves has to be introduced with great caution in some situations; in others it can be assumed to already be a shared assumption. In some places, there is a clear distinction between spirituality and religion, and in other places this distinction is not made.

Even the structure of the training must vary. In Northern Europe, a half hour for lunch seems prudent, whereas in Southern Europe, two hours will hardly suffice.

Furthermore, we must pay attention to the specific words we use. For example, on the West Coast of the United States, we readily speak about the energy each Self carries. When speaking to a group of psychiatrists in Switzerland, I was advised to avoid this word, at least in the beginning of the training; I was advised to use atmosphere or tone. Meditators use the word ego to refer to something like personal will. When working with them, I substitute our word ego with the word center, until it is possible to clarify that what we mean in Voice Dialogue when we say ego is the executor of the psyche (as it is used in psychology).” www.SCVDI.com.

ROBERT STAMBOLIEV, MA, was born in Italy and

moved to The Netherlands when he was six years old. He studied social sciences and received an MA in Psychology from International College in 1988. Published in 1989, his book The Energetics of Voice Dialogue: An In- Depth Exploration of the Energetics Aspects of Transformational Psychology is required reading for all Voice Dialogue students. In 1988 he founded and still directs The Institute for Transformational Psychology, which does trainings in The Netherlands, France, Austria, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, and Italy. The institute offers team and personal coaching.

Robert says he is works in several fields: psychiatry, psychology, coaching, career counseling, and Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of the Selves. His offers different length formats in his training programs in Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of the Selves, and he teaches and consults in English, Dutch, German, and French. “I am currently training intercultural psychotherapists, coaches, and trainers in the use of VD with their clients. . . . VD is an ideal tool to invite the [individual’s] different identities . . . to do with cultural backgrounds. I have developed a three-day and a yearlong training program for this purpose. Another . . . is the application of VD for people who struggle with different cultures within, those who have migrated. I have done experimental work (during) the last two years and will now begin a program for refugees in Holland. There is a written report of a workshop I have with two demonstration sessions that has been published as well in Dutch. . . . It is on our website, www.transformatiepsycholgie.nl.”

“When I started in 1983, I was of course very identified with the actual techniques. Nowadays I like to play with it, being more free to work with the underlying principles and more creative in finding the right form that fits the client.” info@itp-psychology www.transformatiepsychologie.nl

MIRIAM DYAK, BA, RC, is the author of The Voice Facilitator’s Handbook, Part 1 (1999). Her article “Psychology of the Aware Ego and the Voice Dialogue Method” appeared in the February/March 1999 AHP Perspective.

Miriam created The Voice Dialogue Institute in Seattle, where she teaches, trains therapists, and presents Voice Dialogue workshops. In addition, Miriam maintains a private practice. Miriam has developed Voice Dialogue Sand Play. She first discovered Sand Tray work at the final session of the Voice Dialogue Summer Kamps in 1994. She began to collect pieces for this work, and currently has 2,250 individual small figures. Miriam has integrated the use of sand trays into the Voice Dialogue model.

At the beginning of a session, with the client in normal Operating Ego, they will be asked to close their eyes, and place their hands in the Sand Tray with Miriam. The client is then instructed to bring their energy down into the tray. Once this grounding is completed, the client is asked to focus upon his or her personal story, and to feel the questions within. When they open their eyes, clients are instructed to select figures from Miriam’s collection that attract them, as well as ones that don’t.

After the client places the objects into the sand tray, Miriam asks a series of questions such as: what does this feel like? If this were a dream, which piece would be most like you, and which would be most not like you? Then, the client is asked to move over, and to speak from a selected piece. This permits the client, who would now be in a Self (or subpersonality) to separate from a visible, tangible object.

Miriam, in her role as facilitator, continues to dialogue with the Self identified in the object the client has selected. The client is allowed to move around the room throughout this process. They may elect to align themselves physically with a Self in the sand tray, or they may chose to move to a place in the room where they can look at the specific piece from a different angle. “When a Self can move the representative figure to a new place in the tray, this causes an energetic shift in the moment, and a literal shift in real time.” This shift leads to real changes in the person’s life.

At the conclusion of the session, the client is shifted back into Operating Ego, or Aware Ego if they have progressed to that place, to review the session. Miriam then takes digital photos of the personalized sand tray, which are later sent to the client. She photographs the entire tray, as well as the individual pieces (and the shadows formed by the pieces). The use of the photos allows each client to continue the session’s work in their own time and at their own pace. The client may also want to speak to other Selves in the tray, and may elect to journal with the new material. “The work is energetically incorporated because of the physicality of the experience.” www.thevoicedialogueinstitute.org.

AMARA TANSOMBOON, MA, has taught Voice Dialogue in Thailand for five years. She reflects the Stones’ belief that their work is psychospiritual, rather than merely psychological or spiritual. She received her Master’s in neurolinguistics from the University of Washington in Seattle, and then moved to New York City to work with the Citibank International Technology Group. She transferred to Citibank Thailand, where she applied hypnotherapy to employee management (she has a doctorate in Hypnotherapy from the American Institute of Hypnotherapy, Irvine, California, United States).

She describes hypnotherapy as “age regression, inner child, NLP, Creative imagery, and MBTI Type, with individuals and in groups.” She felt bored with placing people into a hypnotic trance. “I heard something inside of me saying that hypnosis was ‘psychic power,’ which the Lord Buddha taught people to be out of. I didn’t know what it meant as I’m not a religious person. I followed my inner urge to talk to the client’s child out-of-trance. I discovered that they had other parts besides the inner child. I still used reprogramming/ visualization with those parts that talked to me. But something in me felt incomplete.”

When she reflects upon the evolution of her work, Amara credits her discovery of the Aware Ego as the transformational ingredient of the process, both for her personally and professionally. “To me, knowing different selves is not as important as having the Aware Ego to be able to oversee the different selves. And I think the beauty of the Stones’ work is getting people to experience the Aware Ego, which is very abstract in concept but very real when we experience it. I told Hal and Sidra that their work felt, to me, like the essence of Buddhism, to which a large number of Buddhists never got close. And the reason maybe because of the way Buddhism has been taught. They are taught about ‘consciousness’ as a concept with models of how it should feel. So the Buddhists think they get to consciousness by comprehending it and try to maintain, solidify it. But you know well that consciousness is so dynamic and ever-changing according to whatever polarities we are standing between at that time.”

Amara says her transition from hypnotherapy to Voice Dialogue was quite subtle to her clients and in her writings. It has been only within the past four years that she has emphasized the concept of the Aware Ego. She has used her column in a Thai Women’s magazine to introduce Voice Dialogue into Thailand. “The public understanding of Voice Dialogue here is under cultivation.” hypno@lox2.loxinfo.co.th

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JUDITH TAMAR STONE (daughter of Hal Stone) is the originator of Body Dialogue. This approach was developed in response to her severe rheumatoid arthritis, which she contracted at age 28. “My illness became the opportunity to turn my life around. I began to study Voice Dialogue, which encouraged my personal growth process. What I learned was that our bodies can provide us with vital information. Instead of only looking outside ourselves, I discovered that our bodies know what they need. There is a tremendous amount of wisdom contained within us. In tapping this body information, I was led to find more holistic approaches to healing and to managing my pain. My work with Pilates instructors helped place my body in alignment in a conscious and intentional way. This led me into a new relationship with my body, and I used all types of healing to deal with my extreme pain.

I believe that illness has potential gifts. We are then given the opportunity to change our lives on all levels; not only our physical bodies, but our jobs and our relationships as well.” Judith begins and ends a Body Dialogue session by speaking with the overall Voice of the body, which corresponds to the Voice of the Aware Ego. This Voice represents a doorway to many of the body parts, such as the organs, limbs, bones, skin, genitals—any of them might feel pain. Judith says that she always checks in with the individual’s Protector, to safeguard the client’s vulnerability during the session. Judith has actually developed a series of questions for the specific body parts. After speaking with the Protector, the specific Body Voices can be addressed, and dialogued with at length. “Most bodies are exhausted. People often remove their jewelry, watches, extra clothing, and elect to lie down before speaking with me. The essential frequency (or energy) shifts radically during the session. Most body parts have very different energetics and ways of speaking. Each of the Body Voices has a tremendous amount of information to give. We just have to learn how to listen to their messages. If we learn how to listen, the Body Voices will embrace us, because they are loyal and faithful.” To conclude a session, Judith leads the client back through to the overall Body Voice. Judith is currently living and teaching in Boulder, Colorado, and she is writing a book. www.voicedialogueconnection.com

FRANCA ERRANI CIVITA Ph.D., is the co-director of the Voice Dialogue Counseling School and also teaches at Arezzo University in Siena, Italy. She is the first person to place Voice Dialogue within a university setting. “I have first created a two-year course and then a three-year course, and then [also] a counseling school that is Voice Dialogue–oriented.”

Although Franca’s original degree was in physics, she had also studied psychology and metaphysics. She discusses her four-year training in “Rio Aberto” which means Open River. “This training, when body, dance, movement, and psyche were all present . . . provided a way to rediscover my body, [which had been] so sacrificed to intellect and mind for many years. But something was missing in the Open River training; the clarity, focus, and elegance I found in Voice Dialogue.”

Franca continued her training with Robert Stamboliev in Switzerland and Holland, and began to assist him in the new training program he was developing in France. She began to teach Voice Dialogue in Italy in 1993. She developed a two-year training program. Franca continued to study Voice Dialogue, traveling to work with Hal and Sidra Stone, in France, Holland, and the United States. In 1994 she met Enrico Cheli, a professor of Psychology and Sociology at the University of Siena. They collaborated on the translation and publication of Embracing Each Other by the Stones and he began to use this book as a text in his classes. He invited Franca to teach Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of the Selves at his university.

Franca wrote that the past five years have been the most transformational for her work. This is because of the many changes required to adapt her work into a university curriculum and to begin teaching to “normal” people. Now Franca is teaching in the Masters in Communication and Personal Relationship program, for postgraduate students who seek to deepen their skills.

In reflecting upon the integration of movement into her teaching, Franca says: “In both private and public teachings, I am doing a lot of ‘VD in groups,’ using all the techniques and exercises I developed along these years through movement, body perception, posture, use of the space, etc. I called this body of work Voicedance, but I do not think it is the right name, as it does not offer a true insight of this powerful tool. I am still thinking about it.” FrancaErraniCivita@franerra@tin.it

CATHERINE SWAN REIMER Ed.D., is a Native American who has been teaching Voice Dialogue to other Indians and Alaskan Natives. She has taught the introduction to Voice Dialogue and a three-day workshop for the National Indian Child Welfare Association. She has many clients who travel from different reservations to have private sessions with her.

“I try to use our ways of describing components of the Stones’ work, such as The Talking Circle, for the process. Because our people are visual, I bring all kinds of stuffed animals to show the different voices that can emerge, and I use myself as an example. As I slowly bring out all the animals, people begin to understand and can relate this to the ‘storytelling’ that we have done for eons to describe parts of ourselves.

“When I talk about the Disowned Self, I talk about my own experience of getting in touch with my Impersonal Self (which is culturally forbidden), and discuss the experience as being in a ‘Sweat,’ and how very difficult it can be when we cross over cultural mores.”

Catherine employs many examples from the Voice Dialogue books, using stuffed animals to role-play the parts. She explains that it isn’t necessary to identify with the labels of illness used by mental health professionals, and that “perhaps sometimes you are sick, but not all the time. The Aware Ego can see this, and can understand that this is just for now, and that this part is expressing itself, and then wait for another part to emerge that is capable of living in the moment with full awareness.” www.swancircle.com

GENEVIEVE CAILLOUX, MA, and PIERRE CAUVIN, Ph.D., are a married couple who have been the co-directors of OSIRIS Conseil since 1989. This is an organizational development firm, based in Vernou la Calle sur Seine, which is located near Fontainebleau, France. “We discovered Voice Dialogue in 1989 when we attended a workshop in San Francisco presented by two of Shakti Gawain’s teachers. They were using Voice Dialogue more than Creative Visualization in their presentation (Shakti is renowned for her books about Creative Visualization). We then organized and translated their material, and in 1990–1991 we presented 20 workshops throughout France.”

In the early 1990s, Genevieve attended several trainings with Robert Stamboliev in France. “Then the two of us both went to Mendocino; and took the Stones’ Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 trainings. Then we worked with Hal and Sidra on a private basis for at least one week each year.” They have arranged for the translation into French and publication of five of the Stones’ books.

The specialty of the OSIRIS Conseil is the linkage that Pierre and Genevieve have made between the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator and Voice Dialogue. They call it the Typological Approach, and their training is called The Aware Ego Process, Voice Dialogue, and Personality Types.

“We teach Voice Dialogue for human resources professionals, who want to use it in coaching or counseling. This is a 28-day program, spread over two years, with a paper to be written at the conclusion. This work is very intense. The ninth of these courses is on its way.” Pierre@osiris-conseil.com Genevieve@orsiris-conseil.com

JOY MANNÉ, Ph.D., has degrees in Psychology and Buddhist Psychology. She currently lives in Pully, Switzerland (outside of Lausanne). She trained in Spiritual Therapy in Holland, where she learned Rebirthing Breathwork and Voice Dialogue. From 1989–1995, Joy ran her own School of Personal and Spiritual Development in Switzerland. Then she became a teacher on the international circuit. Joy currently focuses her work in Poland and Switzerland, and states with pride that she “introduced Voice Dialogue to both countries.”

“I teach Voice Dialogue and the Dance of Relations classically, as I learned it and as described in Embracing Ourselves and Embracing Each Other. I cannot imagine any way to improve upon Hal and Sidra’s method and insights. …I consider this combination (of techniques) a complete basic and essential approach to living life well and intelligently. Through the first we discover our subpersonalities in all their richness; through the second we understand what we are doing in relationships and learn how to relate in beneficial ways.”

Joy says of her teaching in Poland that she teaches Voice Dialogue in seven modules, over seven weekends of teaching. She reported “20 really good graduates this year.” www.foley.com.pl.” “No matter which technique I am using, it is ingrained in me after all these years to listen to the voices in a client and to observe the energies these voices evoke in me. I have so integrated Voice Dialogue, the Psychology of Selves, and the Aware Ego process into my life and work that it is difficult to separate it out…my position is that Voice Dialogue is the ‘brushing your teeth’ of living and relationships.”

Joy is the author of several books: Soul Therapy (1997), Conscious Breathing: How Shamanic Breathing Can Transform Your Life (2004), two books in French, and she is also the editor of The Healing Breath: A Journal of Breathwork Practice, Psychology and Spirituality. She will soon give Voice Dialogue training to the Coaching movement people in Switzerland. JoyManne@I-breathe.com., www. i-breathe.com

M. DORSEY CARTWRIGHT M.Ed., LPC, LMFT, CCMHC, is the author of the Voice Dialogue Teacher’s Training Manual, and she co-authored Healing Your Relationships through Voice Dialogue and Imago Relationship Therapy (a CD series) with Dr. Bill Crawford. Dorsey is a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist and workshop presenter. She is currently writing Who’s Practicing Your Practice? A Handbook for Psychotherapists. Dorsey stated that her life partner “fell in love with me and with Voice Dialogue. We use the process in our own relationship, and we travel extensively (U.S., Canada, Greece, and Israel) to train others…” In February, Dorsey cohosted a gathering of the Imago Peace Project committee. “Our committee has been expanding Imago Dialogue into Communologue for safe communication within and between groups. So far, we’ve used this process with groups as dramatic as the Israelis and Palestinians, and the Hutus and Tutsis, and in our own Imago community. We’re now exploring how to bring more Voice Dialogue into the communologue process so that within groups there is a growing awareness of who’s communologuing the Communologue.” Dorsey has been a Voice Dialogue practitioner for almost 20 years, and she believes that “no matter how I expand into other areas, there is always a place for Voice Dialogue to enhance whatever my new focus may be…this freedom has certainly enriched my life and the lives of my clients and trainees.” Dorsey is President-elect of the Austin chapter of the AAMFT, and is in the Creative Journaling Expressive Arts training program with Dr. Lucia Capacchione. www.VoiceDialogueTrainings. com

LUCIA CAPACCHIONE Ph.D., A.T.R., R.E.A.T., employs Voice Dialogue extensively in her work, traveling and teaching throughout the world. She wrote about Voice Dialogue in her first book, Recovery of Your Inner Child, which was originally her doctoral dissertation. She reports that her latest book (#13) is The Art of Emotional Healing, which is a “complete guide to Expressive Arts Therapy, with hands on activities in art (two- and three-dimensional), Voice Dialogue journaling, music, movement, storytelling, etc., and lots of case studies.”

Lucia uses Voice Dialogue in her Creative Journal Expressive Arts certification training program. This is a yearlong program for mental health professionals. She spends one full day training people in Voice Dialogue. She also offers a day of Inner Family Voice Dialogue. “I use Inner Family Voice Dialogue in conjunction with Creative Journal work. We interview only the Protective and the Nurturing Parent voices, and the Inner Child.

In advanced work, we talk to the Critical Parent and also the Spiritual Parent (or Higher Power), and this is used a lot by people in recovery from addictions and codependence. It is the reparenting of the self process which I developed, combining journaling, art therapy, and Voice Dialogue.” www.luciac.com

J’AIME ONA PANGAIA is director of Voice Dialogue Center NW and a retired Registered Nurse turned counselor. She spent nine years as a bookstore owner while training in Voice Dialogue. She hosted speakers and taught workshops on personal growth and development. J’aime trained with Dr. Michael Harner in cross-cultural shamanic studies, and for a time she led local practice groups to explore soul (psyche) healing. “Our explorations were rich in that we experienced ourselves tapping into archetypal energies through structured ritual activities.” She transitioned to working full-time with the Voice Dialogue model because it more accurately connects with the cultural languages of our time and place and distributes the power of consciousness and transformation equally. J’aime is a full-time Voice Dialogue facilitator and teacher in Portland, Oregon. Her articles frequently appear on the Delos website www.Voicedialogue.org and are on her website www. VoiceDialogueCenterNorthWest. Her new book, The Benefit of People Who Bug You, presents new perspectives and teaching tools for facilitators in the field.

J’aime maintains a private practice as well as teaching at least two classes each week. She has taught Voice Dialogue at many different venues: at a weight loss center, at churches and spiritual communities, at a dance community, and at a therapist community, for several sales organizations, and at the local Mankind Project Men’s Warrior group. “This reflects both the flexibility inherent in Voice Dialogue to speak to the needs of many different kinds of communities as well as the encouraging news that people in all walks of life are looking for tools to help them evolve.”

Jaime also has taught professional in-service educational programs for Kaiser Permanente Health Systems and the Canadian Government Management Leadership Training program. This year, she’ll be traveling to Thailand to teach Voice Dialogue for an executive group. www: VoiceDialogueCenterNorthWest

JUDITH HENDIN, Ph.D., NMT, is the creator of the Conscious Body method of healing. Judith describes her work as seeing the Self behind the Symptom. She works with people who have physical symptoms that they seek to heal.

“We can begin with any physical symptom, and move inward to discover the Self, usually disowned, that is trying to find life by getting our attention through a physical symptom. Swimming with the body, there is no shallow water, and the facilitator must maneuver delicately. We begin by speaking with The Thinkers as we invite them to tell all they know about the symptom. Then we speak with the Gatekeeper of the body–psyche, the part that does not want to do the process, and which has prudent advice and guidelines. We have now cleared the decks for the Self behind the symptom to appear.

“The client goes through a full body relaxation, and then waits in the energy pool of the symptom— waits for images or messages to appear as if in a dream. From here on, the facilitator asks energy questions only; we are no longer interested in information, we are following energy. The client uses whatever access channel is most productive; most people get visual or kinesthetic images, some draw or journal, many move (their bodies). In this symbolic realm, eventually out of the mist of symbols, a Self begins to appear, with a particular point of view or need. Now things get dramatic. We encourage full energetic presence as this disowned Self flushes the body with fresh, new energy, be it yearning, yelling, weeping, or skipping merrily, etc. We always attempt to stay aware of opposites that arise. Emotions may surface, and often a Gatekeeper of Emotions steps up, too. (This would sound like, ‘I want to cry, but I’m never allowed to cry.’) As the energy surges, the client lets it flow directly from the symptom, like air whooshing out of a balloon. Touch may be a part of the session. A statistical analysis of 144 symptoms showed that 63% healed and 22% improved.”

Judith has been on the national staff of Shakti Gawain, and has worked with Hal and Sidra Stone as a senior facilitator. She lectures and trains facilitators in her methods, and does sessions in Pennsylvania and New York City, and on the telephone. Judith@consciousbody.com www.consciousbody.com.

JOHN H. DOUGHERTY, JR. M.D., is neither a Voice Dialogue teacher nor a practitioner. He is doing fascinating research that may place the Aware Ego within the brain itself. He is Assistant Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. He is the Director of the Cole Neuroscience Center and the Memory Disorder Clinic. He wrote “The Neurobiology of the Aware Ego,” an article describing the potential relevance of his research to Voice Dialogue.

“Modern neuroscience is beginning to make an important contribution to our understanding of the Aware Ego. …A new conceptual theory developed by Hal and Sidra Stone, Ph.D., suggests that instead of the traditional Freudian ego of self-psychology, humans may utilize an ‘aware ego,’ or executive choicemaker. Modern neuroscience suggests that as we move our center of operation and ‘executive choicemaking’ to the Aware Ego, we make increasing use of the anterior cingulate cortex.

“PET neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that executive attention (selective attention and executive choicemaking) is mediated in the anterior cingulate cortex (Posner & Raichle 1998). Heilman (1997) in his review of the anterior cingulate cortex, points out that conflict monitoring, response selection, and initiation of action all are critical components of [its] function. . . . He also suggested that it represents a convergence zone for the limbic emotional brain and other higher cortical (more rational) structure areas. Recent studies in our laboratory (Dougherty 2001), utilizing PET brain imaging suggest that patients with Alzheimer’s disease and anosognsia (lack of self-awareness and abnormalities of executive choice making) have a defect in the anterior cingulate cortex.

“We conclude that anosognosia in Alzheimer’s disease may represent a deficit in the ability of focusing selective attention on one’s self, and this may result in a functional abnormality in the Aware Ego. These studies suggest that the executive choicemaker (Aware Ego) appears to be associated specifically with the anterior cingulate cortex, and may represent a unique human capacity for informed decisionmaking. Is it possible that the Aware Ego process results in increased numbers of cells or increased connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex?” conscJD@aol.com

SUSAN SCHWARTZ SENSTAD MA, writes from Nesodden, Norway. Susan was born and educated in the United States. During her three years at Esalen Institute (1973–1976), she “experienced . . Gregory Bateson, Ida Rolf, Alan Watts, Moshe Feldenkrais, and others,” and was an assistant to Dr. Will Schutz, one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology.

In 1977, Susan began working at L’Institute de Bioenergetica in Rome, as a therapist and self-development group leader. She was using a combination of Encounter techniques and Bioenergetics. She taught all over Italy and led groups in Norway three times a year. Susan was living in Philo, California, when she met the Stones in 1982. “Here was Voice Dialogue providing both an enormously effective and easy to present experiential method for accessing inner content and an exquisite and nonreductive cognitive model enabling people to integrate those experiences—wellfunctioning people as well as people in crisis, with which I could merge almost everything else I’d learned. I felt I had found my professional home.”

In 1985, Susan moved to Norway with her husband, and began teaching there. In 1986, she introduced Voice Dialogue to Norway, and reports that between 1986 and 2000, she trained the entire first generation of Voice Dialogue practitioners and teachers currently working in Norway.

Susan collaborated with Erik Koritzinsky, an organizational consultant, and they combined their skills, doing consulting work together in business settings. They developed a course, More Versatility for Men and Women, which was utilized by the Norwegian Labor Department. Their project became so successful that the Labor Department allocated funds for an in-depth research study of the results of the course. Susan wove the research results with participant feedback and wrote Voice Dialogue: From a Users Manual for the Human Being at Work, available on the Voice Dialogue website, in the Reading Room.

Susan found a Norwegian publisher to bring out Embracing Your Inner Critic in 1994 and The Shadow King in 1998. She wrote the foreword for both books. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College in 1995. Her book Music for The Inner Ear (2000) was printed in five countries and four languages. “Much to my delight, BBC Radio4 bought the radio theatre rights to the novel. It has been adapted as a one-hour radio play adaptation, Zero.”

Susan is completing her second novel, Mother Tongue. Several of her articles can be located at www. delos-inc.com/Reading_Room/Articles. ideanos@telefonica.com

DIANNE BRADEN, MA, LICDC, is a Jungian analyst, and is the co-director of the Cleveland Voice Dialogue Institute. She has been in the mental health field for 18 years. “My interest in altered states came from five years of experience working in hospital and residential settings with chemically dependent adolescents and their families, leading me to analysis and ultimately training to become an analyst myself.” Dianne was introduced to Voice Dialogue more than 10 years ago when she went through a series of Hellerwork sessions with Iudita Harlan. Dianne began working with Hal and Sidra Stone in 1998, attending their weeklong intensives in Albion, California. Dianne moved to Washington in 2000, and says, “It was the need of the community that encouraged me to take up Voice Dialogue again, especially couples work.” She studied with Miriam Dyak, and returned to Cleveland in 2003 to teach Voice Dialogue classes. “In doing intensive energetic work with Hal and Sidra, I recognized the same connection I have felt in the analytic container with my patients. It is the same connection that deepens the work in either discipline, and one’s capacity to stay in linkage increases with practice. I think that the work I’ve done in energetics has simply strengthened my abilities in all areas, professional and personal.” Dianne is a diplomate of the Inter-regional Society of Jungian Analysts, serves on their Admissions Committee, and is an officer of the Pittsburg Society of Jungian Analysts. (440)-349-0544.

JASON BENNETT runs The Jason Bennett Actors Workshop in New York City. “A fundamental requirement of an actor is that they have access to a great deal of their psyche for use in their acting. Great actors have an easy access to a whole range of archetypes, consciously or intuitively. The Voice Dialogue process advances actor training significantly forward in this area. Because Voice Dialogue is a more efficient process for cultivating archetype access than traditional acting tools, it efficiently solves many acting blocks that traditional acting tools can’t. “The Psychology of the Selves provides clear and compelling explanations for the dynamics of human relationships, including bonding patterns and intense archetypal conflicts. All dramatic stories can be seen as elaborate archetypal conflicts, where the primary archetypes of one character are warring with the primary archetypes of the opposite character. The Psychology of the Selves is also an intuitive and powerful script analysis approach that goes well beyond traditional script analysis techniques. Traditional script analysis techniques were developed in acting classes by acting teachers, whereas the Psychology of the Selves was created from the observation of human relationships in the real world. As a result, the Psychology of the Selves is a more intuitive key to unlock the code of a script.” www.jbactors.com

CAROLYN CONGER, Ph.D., is an internationally known and respected consultant and teacher from Santa Monica, California. Carolyn conducts seminars throughout the world in psychology, growth, healing, dreamwork, intuition, creativity, and spirituality. She has lived with many tribal societies, studying their healing and metaphysical arts. From her research in psychology, immunology, and human energy fields, she also teaches mind/body techniques for optimum health. She has integrated Voice Dialogue into her dreamwork, intuitive training, and the creative process. It is part of the language she uses in her process groups. She sometimes teaches Voice Dialogue alone. www.carolynconger.com

CONCLUSION The participants of this e-mail survey (40 practitioners contacted, with 19 responding and featured in this article) bring a variety of educational backgrounds and professional interests to the work of Voice Dialogue. Hal and Sidra Stone have been supportive of new uses for their work, and new methods of applying Voice Dialogue, The Psychology of the Selves, and the Aware Ego process. This implicit permission to innovate has allowed its continuing evolutionary process. Thus, we find that Voice Dialogue and its worldwide community have continued to grow and thrive into the 21st century.

DASSIE HOFFMAN, Ph.D., LCAT, ADTR, is a 2002 graduate of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, a licensed Creative Arts Therapist, and a Registered dance/movement therapist. She is co-director of the New York Voice Dialogue Institute in New York City, where she conducts a psychotherapy practice, and teaches Voice Dialogue for Mental Health Professionals. dassieh@aol.com, drdassiehoffman.com

First Cover Story:

NAVIGATING A HEALING PATH
— Vera Franco Dahm