What makes Voice Dialogue work effective? What skills are needed to become a Voice Dialogue Facilitator?

The Voice Dialogue Facilitator is well versed in the theory of the Psychology of Selves and knows and understands its different elements: primary and disowned selves, vulnerability and power, instinctive and transpersonal energies, bonding patterns in relationships, dreams, archetypes, energetics and facilitation skills. In addition, the Voice Dialogue facilitator has been in and continues to be in an extensive process by working with these elements, experiencing them deeply and integrating them over time.

The guidelines we will describe here live within a process rather than a stationary condition. They may be developed and polished without limit; on the other hand, they can be lost if one does not continue one's own personal process (even if one is experienced in the work). To become and continue to be a skilled Voice Dialogue Facilitator, it is highly recommended to have an active practice of being facilitated on a regular basis. This supports the facilitator to really surrender to one's own process, and find out, from one's experience of being facilitated, what does and does not actually work. This will also allow the Facilitator to personally experience a wider assortment of inner selves that can later be drawn upon through an Aware Ego process when facilitating someone else.

Because Voice Dialogue work is a process to which each facilitator brings a unique set of skills, talents, and life experiences, there is no hard and fast rule about how long such a developmental process will take. It is our experience that it can generally take between three to five years to become an experienced and transformative Voice Dialogue facilitator, if the person is already experienced with working energetically or psychologically with others. If the person has not yet developed good listening and interpersonal relationship skills, either personally or professionally, the process may very likely take more time.

We have found that the development of the individual process includes the following elements:

In looking at the skills needed to be a Voice Dialogue Facilitator, we see that these are partly the result of one''s own process of consciousness, and should also have a sound basis in theory and training.

These skills include the following:

• Being able to assess which clients to accept and which to decline or refer to a competent specialist. This is the first safety mechanism for good practice and is particularly important for those facilitators who are not psychotherapeutically trained.
• A practiced ability to facilitate from an Aware Ego process, as the premise for a true unconditional acceptance of the client and for holding/modeling the client''s Aware Ego process.
• A practiced ability to facilitate from an Aware Ego process, as the premise for a true unconditional acceptance of the client and for holding/modeling the client''s Aware Ego process.

The process of becoming a skillful Facilitator is a process of learning, which is not linear, and includes the following steps

Being a seasoned, experienced Voice Dialogue facilitator is a developmental process. There will be a moment when the skillful facilitator feels more and more comfortable with the work and has a sense of embodiment, knowledge and skill. Then s/he can work independently, while still maintaining his/her personal process and continuing education in the work.

It is not essential for facilitators to become teachers, but in order to do so, one first has to be committed both to use Voice Dialogue in one's own personal process and to facilitate others. According to our experience the process of becoming a Voice Dialogue teacher includes the following elements and development of skills in addition to those needed for facilitation:

1. Be an experienced facilitator (at least 3 to 5 years).
2. Be a teaching assistant in Voice Dialogue training programs.
3. Practice teaching of parts of a training under supervision.
4. Have experience and skills in using energetics in groups.
5. Have didactic and group dynamic skills.