A Path to Wholeness
A Path to
Personal Growth
A Path to Transformative
Relationships
Voice Dialogue is a method for developing and exploring awareness of our inner selves (also known as “parts,” "sub-personalities,” or “archetypal energies"). In a session, the facilitator leads the client into a direct experience of the selves in order to develop an Aware Ego Process through which the selves can be engaged consciously.
Although most of us think of ourselves as a single “I”, we are actually comprised of a complex tapestry of selves. Each self holds to and advocates for a particular view of the world. Each protects a particular vulnerability. From an early age, most of us identified with a small number of these selves which then became our primary ways of being in the world. At the same time, we disowned other selves with alternate, sometimes conflicting perspectives.
The psyche, however, tends toward wholeness and these disowned selves, hungry for our attention, come after us. One place we see them is in the people we judge. Paradoxically, we also can fall in love with people who carry our disowned selves.
Voice Dialogue facilitation empowers you to stay connected to your primary selves and the opposite, disowned selves at the same time. This process of holding the tension between these opposites, known in Voice Dialogue as the Aware Ego Process, provides wholeness and a greater sense of choice and agency in your life.
Voice Dialogue is a non-pathologizing technique that empowers its practitioners to participate actively in their own growth. Nothing is discarded and no self is rejected. On the contrary, clients come to embrace the selves they have long identified with and to welcome the selves they have disowned. As clients move in and out of these selves during sessions, they learn to perceive the signs that specific selves are active. When they leave the sessions, they take these signs into their lives and practice noticing and dis-identifying with different selves on their own.
Dream work and creative arts expression are also utilized in this work and contribute richly to the development of the Aware Ego Process. In dream work, we will explore different characters in your dreams as different selves to be facilitated. In between sessions, dream work and art will be recommended to engage the selves and to understand their place in your life.
Voice Dialogue will add aliveness to your relationships and help you navigate some of the pitfalls. In Voice Dialogue sessions we explore bonding patterns that come up between you and the people with whom you interact—whether at home, at work, or elsewhere.
The founders of Voice Dialogue, Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone, define the bonding pattern as “the default setting in relationships.” Bonding patterns are completely natural but often unconscious ways of interacting that are based on parent/child dynamics. Essential when we are children for the bond with our parents to develop, these patterns tend to remain and impact our adult relationships in adverse ways.
With Voice Dialogue facilitation, these patterns become visible and you are given the opportunity and the tools to stay connected with your primary selves and with the selves your partner or colleague or friend is holding. The Aware Ego Process has the power to shift the bonding patterns and revitalize your relationships.
Tamara Yates, MDiv, ThM
Trained in Voice Dialogue Facilitation with J'aime ona Pangaia, a senior trainer for Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone with over 30 years of practice. In 2013, she completed a 2-year Transformational Arts Program that focused on Voice Dialogue, archetypal studies, and dream work. Subsequently, she facilitated 100 sessions with supervision from Ms. ona Pangaia.
In 2018, Tamara also completed a year-long Voice Dialogue Facilitator Training with Miriam Dyak and Cassandra Cosme de Pree. In 2022 she returned to the training as an Assistant Teacher. Currently, she is working on an M.A. in Counseling Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.
For Tamara, Voice Dialogue is powerful work that has made it possible for her to appreciate the tension between opposite parts of herself instead of rejecting one side in favor of the other. She is thrilled to be on the path of creating an Aware Ego Process where all her selves have a seat at the table and are recognized as contributing something of value.
She discovered this work while living in a L'Arche community with people with intellectual disabilities. There she learned how to stay present with vulnerability in herself and others. Her passion for Voice Dialogue is deeply aligned with the values she nurtured at L'Arche and with her long-term interests in Jungian and depth psychological perspectives.
For More Information Or to SCHEDULE A SESSION
Call (541) 357-8169 or send a message here. I look forward to talking with you soon!
Testimonials
I just wanted to share that the work is settling in and "clicking" on a new level for me. I actually feel a sense of internal space, like I have this actual spacious home inside me....
That's such a big deal! Thank you for holding such a beautiful and strong space for me to do this work. I just keep marveling more and more the deeper I go. —M.R.
“I feel like I've been learning more about my psyche in this past week than I can remember! It's been challenging--coming up against places of such shakiness, fear, doubt, disorientation-- but I'll let my inner proud father speak and say I'm so proud of how I've been showing up for my inner child. I feel a new level of inner loyalty and devotion to truly paying attention to him and offering what he needs. Thank you thank you for sharing your amazing art with me! Que bonita!” —E.R.
When I signed up to do this work I didn't have any notion of what Voice Dialogue was, but I felt drawn to work with Tamara. I spoke to her about setting up a few sessions to help me process some challenges that had presented themselves in my life.
As our session began I was in awe of what was coming up for me, and coming out of my mouth. I was discovering parts of myself that I hadn't been fully aware of before. Tamara held the space in such a way that allowed for this to happen: complete un-selfconscious expression of the myriad of aspects that were involved in keeping myself stuck and in a state of challenge. I left each session with a wealth of new information and compassion for my process that allowed me to move forward with ease.
Tamara has an ability to ask the kinds of questions that are like keys to locked up parts of the self. She is a powerful facilitator. —S.G.
"Tamara has an amazing gift. In our work together she created an environment where all parts of me felt seen, understood and valued, and I felt free to explore deep and hidden places without the shame I may have felt in the past. I have experienced a lot of healing and therapeutic modalities and was impressed with the power of this work to get right to the core. Tamara's compassion and insight helped me begin to love and understand the more wounded aspects of myself so that I am even more open to the healing wisdom they possess." —A.L.
"Voice Dialogue allowed different parts of myself to emerge, sometimes parts I did not even realize existed before. Tuning in, giving those parts a chance to express themselves, has been healing and integrating for me. Tamara is a caring practitioner from whom to learn this approach." —T.B.
events
A Path to Wholeness: Facilitations with Tamara
Join me for a powerful group process. Twice per month, you are invited to attend a 90-minute Voice Dialogue facilitation on Zoom.
Together we will explore the impact of bringing this soul-enlivening individual work into a group setting. Participants will be invited to:
experience moving into selves in a short group exercise;
assist in holding a container for a one-on-one facilitation
pay close attention to how the work that is being facilitated touches your own process
share what you notice with the larger group at the conclusion of the facilitation.
Upcoming Sessions
A Path to Wholeness is on a break for the moment. Please check back for future gatherings.