Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I The Music of the Mind: Understanding your inner world 5
1 Playing Together 6
We are not soloists
Duets: The conscious and unconscious mind
Trios: The Observing Self
Quartets: The Collective Unconscious
Quintets and ensembles: Our inner 'family'
The full orchestra
2 Learning the Score 17
Chords and melodies: background and foreground
3 The March of Time: Understanding your life story 24
Shaped by trauma
Shaped by stories
Shaped by families
Shaped by life
Transitions
Refraining
Diving in
4 Discord: Why you might turn to a therapist 34
A note of warning
Part II The Art and Skill of Self-Therapy 39
5 Setting the Scene 40
First task: Enlist your two primary helpers
The Observing Self
The Virtual Therapist
An important question about sabotage
Teamwork
Role of the Nurturing Parent
6 Problem-solving 49
Conflict resolution
If problem-solving doesn't work…
7 Personal Growth 53
Notice OTT reactions
Notice substitutions
Notice what your body is saying
Owning your projections
8 The Magic of Chairs 57
Monologues
Dialogues
Two-chair dialogue with another(virtual) person
The three- letter exercise
Two-chair dialogue between aspects of yourself
Or even more chairs…Your cast of thousands
Journaling and other chairless techniques
9 Working with Dreams 69
Big dreams
Interpreting dreams: a personal code
Working the dream
Extending the dreamwork
Grounding the dreamwork
Part III A Change of Consciousness 79
10 Your Transpersonal Self 80
The quantum universe
Worlds unseen
Time
A sense of oneness
The secret truth of relationship
And finally…
Notes 87
About the Author 88
