INTENSIVE VOICE DIALOGUE TRAINING PROGRAM

Intensive Voice Dialogue Training Program


Date : 5th to 9th May 2008

Venue : Guruji B.K. Iyengar Hall, Kripa Foundation, Vasai

Resource Person : Rev. Fr. William O. Whittier

Participants : Counselors and Staff of Kripa Foundation centres in the Western Region (Pune, Andheri, Bandra, Vasai, Mangalore and Goa), Delhi and Imphal

Background:
Many a time, along the road of life, due to various circumstances, we find our behaviour and action quite bizarre and alien to what we have come to recognize as our personality. We are sometimes shocked or even disgusted by these black moments and tend to bury them. But they stay with us and resurface time and time again and over a period of time we might even doubt our sanity. On the whole these moments only add up to make our lives unmanageable and the lives of the people around us miserable.

The Voice Dialogue program the result of many years of research conducted by Hal Stone PhD and Sidra L. Stone Phd, has been very successful in enabling an individual to understand the opposite sides of the different sub-personalities and move to what is known as the “Aware Ego.” This program has brought about a semblance of balance in thousands of peoples lives and has had considerable success when working with addicts and alcoholics.

Objectives:
The program was organized with the following objectives:

To enable the participants to see how different sub-personalities rule their lives,
To enable the participants to identify which sub-personalities are dominant in their lives,
To encourage the participants to explore the opposite sides of these sub-personalities,
To enable the participants to deal with the different sub-personalities and move to the Aware Ego.
To empower the participants to conduct further programs at the therapeutic community level in their respective centers.

The Event:
The program was inaugurated by Rev. Fr. Joe H. Pereira, Founder and Managing Trustee, Kripa Foundation, on 5th May 2008. The management of De-Addiction Centre (DAC), Andheri, and the Bandra rehabilitation centre were present. The program commenced with a prayer led by Rev. Fr. Joe Pereira. Thereafter, Fr. Joe presented a brief preview of the program that was about to begin and assured the participants that they could only benefit if they used what they learnt at this program in their lives.

Next, Fr. William Whittier, fondly known as Fr. Bill, provided the participants with a brief description of the program that was about to follow. He narrated the story of the tiger cub, which was brought up by goats and in all attributes became a goat himself except for his physical appearance. Fr, Bill went on to say that many of us are like that goat-tiger, still drifting in life with no understanding of our true selves. He explained how the program would help us to identify the major sub-personality that are ruling our lives and move out of this sub-personality / personalities to the realm of the Aware Ego.

The program consisted mainly of different video recordings of programs conducted by Hal Stone and Sidra Stone and these were screened for the benefit of the participants. These primarily touched upon the different sub-personalities, namely, Pleaser, Pusher, Perfectionist, Critic and the Rational Mind. A total of 8 DVD were screened and systematically dealt with all the primary personalities and their opposites, the Disowned personalities. All the sessions were extremely informative but structured in a fairly simple manner. The post lunch sessions consisted of group therapy wherein the participants were divided into 4 groups and notes were exchanged.

The last 2 days consisted of video recording of demonstration sessions enacted by Hal and Sidra Stone, which touched upon all the different sub-personalities. Mock voice dialogue sessions were organized and each of the participants got an opportunity to play the part of both client and facilitator.

The program concluded on 9th May 2008 with a valedictory ceremony where each participant was awarded a certificate of participation. In addition they were presented with a copy of A.A. “Twenty-four Hours a Day” by Hazeldon, USA. Thus the curtains came down on yet another program which will go a long way in helping the participants to attain some semblance of serenity in their lives. Unfortunately, Mr. Bosco D’Souza, Program Director Western Region, the man behind it all, was unable to attend the last session as his presence was required had to attend to an emergency.

A similar program was held in Imphal in the month of April 2008, and attended by staff from North-Eastern region.

Submitted By:
Bro. Errol Dawson
Jimi Amore