Tilke Platteel-Deur

The Art of Integrative Breathwork Therapy

The Psychology of Selves

| 0 comments

Consciousness is both the experience and the awareness of the different energies we experience in life. Out of experience and awareness, an aware ego emerges. This aware ego is not something static but is continuously in the process of becoming more and more aware.

Consciousness is both the experience and the awareness of the different energies we experience in life. Out of experience and awareness, an aware ego emerges. This aware ego is not something static but is continuously in the process of becoming more and more aware.

Introduction

From the time I started to do breathwork, the technique fascinated me. Merely by using breath there was a great deal that I could accomplish for myself, and later in my work with clients as well. Nevertheless areas remained where I was unable to understand and explain why and how certain dynamics worked. This was especially true for the dynamics in relationships. Since our life is mainly relationship, in one form or another, I felt the need to find a frame of thought through which to understand the work I was doing on a deeper level. I also wanted tools to make its practice easier.

Because the universe seems to provide us with answers to questions that we put out, I was very lucky to meet Dr. Hal Stone and his wife Dr. Sidra Stone-Winkelman in 1981 in Amsterdam. They were there to introduce their ideas on the Psychology of Selves, and the Voice Dialogue technique that they had developed. After Hal’s first lecture I felt so thrilled about the simplicity and brilliance of his ideas that I started to study with him and soon after that we – my working partner Hans Mensink and I – incorporated the “Psychology of Selves” into our training. Hans and I have been teaching together since 1979. Our “Institute for Holistic Integrative Breathwork” offers a three-year training program in which we train people in Breathwork, Voice Dialogue, Polarity work and NLP. This training enables the students to learn how to work with other people and to guide them through a deep process of personal growth.

The Psychology of Selves is a frame of thought that helps us to understand the human psyche better. Its essential idea is that the human psyche is composed of many parts or subpersonalities. The idea that the psyche consists of many different parts is not new. Freud, C.G.Jung, Moreno and Pearls, among others, each used this idea in their own specific way. Hal & Sidra Stone however, took this concept and transformed it into a simple, easy and fun technique, which enables us to get into personal contact with our many different voices by talking directly to them. This happens in such a way that we not only experience these voices as lively parts of our personality, each with their own feelings, wishes, behaviour, and so forth, we also learn how to stay aware of these different energies or sub personalities when they operate in our lives and in our relationships.

In the traditional meaning, the ego has always been seen as the decision-maker of the psyche. In the Voice Dialogue technique it becomes clear that what we refer to as ‘ego’ is often the ego being identified with a combination of sub-personalities. The concept of the “Aware Ego” as the Decision-Maker who gets his information both on an awareness level and on an experience level, is, however, unique. I will explain this later more precisely.

We found the Psychology of Selves to be an easily understandable frame of thought and the Voice Dialogue technique an ideal method to use alongside and in combination with breathwork. It proved to be the very clear and simple concept we were seeking to support us in our work on our own process and with our client’s processes on an emotional, energetic and mental level.

For the full article, open the PDF document below

PDF: The Psychology of Selves – Article by Tilke Platteel-Deur 173 Kb

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *.