Embracing Our Selves: The Voice Dialogue Manual

I love Embracing Ourselves. This book has helped me heal parts of myself that I didn't know were there.A life saver for me. Great for helping me to be in touch with how i am feeling and why. I recommend that everyone read this book. Since I stated reading it and using it in my everyday life, I find that I am more at peace with me and as a result I am more tolerant and kind toward other people, because I now have an understanding as to what maybe going on with me and/or them.

If you want to listen to all voices of your person or a client’s…this is a book for you to read. It’s a classic and powerful way to access deeper healing levels. Highly recommend.

The idea of "parts work" is very 'frontier' these days so I was interested to see the Stone's take on it. (Having worked with "Internal Family Systems Work" [Schwartz] and Focusing [Gendlin/Cornell] as well as the earlier versions by Bradshaw et al.) First, the writing is stilted and clinical. Unnecessarily technical. As to content... let's just say that the concept isn't given full treatment, here. The introduction suggests that sections of this title were 'spun off' from the second edition to become their own books. (The fact that the Stones have half-a-dozen titles on this subject say something about their commercial interest in the subject.) Another problem I have with the material is what I refer to as the 'Dianetics Dilemma'... you NEED a partner to do this process. Go to the website for Voice Dialogue and you will see links to PROFESSIONAL facilitators but no mention of other ways of finding a facilitator. Finally, my biggest argument with this treatment w/ Parts Work is that it doesn't go far enough. Voice Dialogue uses a Gestalt-like process of taking on the voice of a subpersonality and otherwise embodying it in physical/emotional/mental space to get to know it. From this perspective, the facilitator interviews your subpersonality, helping you to gain insight into this part. Afterwards, you come back to 'ego awareness' and discuss the session to get more insight. That's all well and good but I think that Focusing does a much better job with the process. Voice Dialogue limits the work to parts that are verbal, fully-formed personalities. Focusing is inclusive enough to allow non-verbal, fuzzy personalities to express themselves and be heard. Voice Dialogue also limits itself by setting up categories for the subpersonalities, a priori. There are primary selves, 'Pushers', disowned selves, etc that are already in place, waiting for us to label and manage. Focusing allows the personalities to describe themselves to us, to develop uniquely, with our respect and appreciation. [Schwartz's Inner Family Systems Therapy, likewise, categorizes the parts and does some of the session with the client vocalizing for the part. Schwartz's work ALSO trains the client to develop a stronger, more beneficent Ego to be able to moderate the subpersonalities.] In summary, the ideas of Voice Dialogue, to the degree that it lines up with the work of Schwartz, Gendlin/Cornell, Bradshaw, and others... confirms the importance of this work. Does it advance the ideas or present new concepts that improve the practice? I don't think so. I give it a three only because the Stones were one of the pioneers of parts work so I have to tip my hat to them. But I would read other authors and incorporate the Stones writings into what the field, as a whole, is saying.

Excellent book. The book does not directly explain at first what it is trying to entail, but as the reader digresses through the various voice dialogues with the interviewer or facilitator, the development of the larger picture is perceived. And I must say, this particular model has stuck with me for quite some time in many other books and teachings I have read, as well as personally experienced in my life. This book really does convey a rather substantial paradgm of human psychology.The ideas conveyed in this book is that of each individual consists of multiple energies or self personalities, each conveying a different part of ourselves. With such voice dialogues, the awareness level of our consciousness increases, our aware ego or observer ego has the ability to gain awareness and perceive silent separateness from our divided energies. We become able to bring or higher selves to obtain an observer's view of our various selves, both the energies we use to control and depend on, as well as those we repress and disown. Anotherwards, it opens us up in awareness to ourselves. We become aware of our hidden observer where we can objectively view all of our different energy patterns or personalities which we use and depend on and those we reject and disown.What is conveyed is how we are to cease repressing our disowned selves, by honoring and listening to such demonic parts of ourselves, while at the same time, continuing to let our positive energies that we currently use to guide us to continually do so. Throughout the book conversations are conveyed which portray the most common various personalities most of us have.At the end of the book, the last chapter has a wonderful illustration on Greek mythology and the parallel of a disowned personality, as in the case of Apollo disowning Dionysus and the story of King Pentheus and his denial and disowning of the new god, Dionysus and the disastrous outcome from repressing and disowning this new god.

It seems a little hokey but I can attest to the power of it's techniques. It's a deeper and more detailed version of Jungian style Active Imagination, focussing on targeting complexes, neuroses and unhelpful emotions/memories with direct conscious effort and interaction. Having said that, there is a large Reichian aspect too, of regressing to your childlike emotional centre and'letting it all loose', though you don't have to be as histrionic about it as that tended to go in the mid 20th Centruy; step one, it claims ,is to locate and set loose the childlike parts of the personality. The best part of this book is early on, it's explanation of the authors' conception of the ego that you inhabit whilst engaging with other parts of your psyche alone, individually.Not for the faint hearted, you will unlock some dark feelings from deep within if you do it right, and bringing these things to the light is the first step to truly moving past them BUT it must be said that the maximum potential of the method described seems to hinge on being applied by a therapist or 'partner'.BUT they make the somewhat disconcerting suggestion of 'using a partner or friend' for this if you can't find a therapist, and given the fact that you'll be talking to and seeing manifestations of portions of the psyche such as your inner 'scared child' and 'angry father' I cannot fathom how this is a good idea in the majority of cases and relationships. Most people should probably avoid that part...

As above.

Great book. It helped me understand a lot myself and other people. Love to talk to my subpersonalities and funny thing is that I’m receiving answers from them ! One of must have books for me.

This is an awesome book that helped to enlighten myself on all the different parts/selves within. If you are going through tough psychological issues of past or present then this books paves the way of explaining how our psyche is built to protect and all the parts work within.

If you are being accompanied by a Jungian therapist, this is a great companion piece.I wouldn't advise reading it independently as a self-help-guide as it is NOT one of those.Well written and a classic in its field, it will help you if your therapist suggests it.