Voice Dialogue (VD) 

Amongst a variaty of modalities Affirmotive's professional counsellor and sex therapist often chooses Voice Dialogue as a powerful and transformational technique, which increases self-awareness and allows you to have more choices and balance within yourself and in your life.

In essence, Voice Dialogue makes you more fully conscious of all the aspects of your humanity, be they spiritual, instinctual, materially focused, service-oriented, emotional, rational, parental and childlike.

Voice Dialogue leads to better relationships, increased self-acceptance and an ability to use more of the talents and abilities you have within you and it takes you closer to your essential nature.

Voice Dialogue and it's underlying theoretical base, the Psychology of the Selves and the Psychology of the Aware Ego, have their roots in Jungian Psychology and was developed by two American psychologists, Dr. Hal Stone and Dr. Sidra Stone, who teach and train people worldwide. Voice Dialogue is gradually becoming a part of psychology and psychotherapy curriculums in universities and colleges all over the world.

Voice Dialogue is increasingly and successfully being used in all kinds of personal development and communication training.

Voice Dialogue helps develop self-awareness, increase self-acceptance and it gives you more choices. It unleashes creativity, inner wisdom, balance, and a sense of realism, purpose and wholeness.

Affirmotive's clients often report a sense of enormous relief and sustainable changes to their lives. "It feels like coming out of prison. Now I am aware of the full spectrum of my personality and I have many choices. My life is truly enriched".

You can seek short term or long term treatment.
Affirmotive offers both. This decision will be based on a variety of factors including the depth and severity of issues you want to solve. Heide recommends a series of 2-4 sessions for the treatment of surface problems including procrastination and good decision making. Additional sessions are encouraged for solving longstanding and deep emotional issues. 

Become your own therapist: Voice Dialogue is a take home tool for life.
Once you have created an Aware Ego and you have learned to separate from your Primary Selves, you are able to implement Voice Dialogue as a part of your daily life, be your own therapist, solve your conflicts and achieve your goals. 

Affirmotive recommends Voice Dialogue as an effective tool in dream work
Dreams are messages formed in the unconscious mind and are presented to the dreamer as a combination of thoughts, images and emotions, occuring during night sleep or as daydreams. Clients who want to do dream work and choose Voice Dialogue will learn to remember their dreams, and dialogue with both the conscious and unconscious inner parts of personality that present themselves as various dream images and emotions.

Sexuality
Heide McConkey has developed the unique model of ‘Voice Dialogue in sex therapy’ for the treatment of dysfunctional sexual relationships, sexual behaviours, sexual addictions, fixations and compulsions. Heide has first presented her model in workshop format at the ACA National Conference, Brisbane, 0ctober 2004, and at the ASSERT National Sexology Conference, Sydney, December 2004

Testimonial
Heide McConkey has worked with Impotence Australia since 2001. Heide has displayed remarkable skills in assessment and providing treatments for sexual dysfunction. I find Heide's current work with applying Voice Dialogue and sex therapy exciting and I am sure that this method will add a new dynamic to the field of sexology. Heide has provided a high standard of supervision to sexologist at Impotence Australia.
Brett McCann CEO Impotence Australia

Professional Counselling

• Counselling is a professional activity that enables people to develop greater self awareness, self-growth, and to make positive changes in their lives.
• Professional counselling is a proactive form of treatment, and is concerned with the prevention of mental illness; the focus is on emotional fitness, mental balance, improved physical wellbeing, increased productivity, life enjoyment and a healthy sense self, sexuality, and esteem.
  
• Professional counsellors work within a clearly contracted, principled relationship which helps clients to develop their capacity to resolve their emotional, personal, sexual, and relational life issues.
• Professional counselling works at considerable depth, with a focus of change.

Professional counselling is a talking treatment

• That aims to help you to find good ways of coping with problems that you may be experiencing.
• The overall aim of counselling is to provide an opportunity for you to work towards living in a more satisfying and resourceful way.

Why might I seek professional counselling

• You may be experiencing emotional distress around a specific life event.
• You may be feeling depressed or experiencing a crisis.
• You may be feeling confused or wish to develop a greater degree of self-understanding.
• It may be that you need someone to talk to and either do not wish to burden family or friends or want to talk to someone independent of them.
• You may feel that you need more support in terms of time, understanding and trust than family and friends can offer you.

How does it work

• Counselling at Affirmotive involves talking with a professional counsellor or sex therapist who is trained in the art of listening.
  
• The counsellor can help you to face up to issues more easily, as well as helping you to recognize more clearly how other people may be affecting you.
  
• Counselling at Affirmotive provides an opportunity for you to talk in a comfortable, safe and confidential environment about your fears, doubts, concerns and feelings.
  
• You can explore alternatives and weigh them up more objectively.
• Counselling or sex therapy can take a number of forms. Depending on your issues and the severity of these issues you want to solve, you may want to choose between a one-off consultation, short-term counselling, usually 3-5 sessions, or long-term therapy for several month. Sessions can be provided face-to-face, over the phone, or online voice webcam real time skype conference. Heide will discuss these options with you and work with you to achieve your personal goals.
  

How can it help me

• Talking to Affirmotive's  professional counsellor and sex therapist who listens and shows empathy and acceptance, can help you in finding your own ways in exploring and letting go of issues that are troubling you.
• This can help you to gain long term relief from emotional distress, improve your sense of personal control and wellness and physical health.
• The counsellor offers confidentiality according to the law, and gives support throughout your counselling, therapy and follow up time, with the focus on your wellness and recovery.
• Counselling, sex therapy and Voice Dialogue provided by Affirmotive helps you to help your self in becoming your own therapist with problem solving skills and achieving your goals.

How effective is counselling

• A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) shows that the most effective help for the treatment of depression lasting less than a year is counselling.
• The study shows that it is more effective over four months than is consulting your GP and obtaining anti-depressants.
• It also shows that while long-term drug treatment is also effective, counselling helped patients more quickly and was of most benefit to those whose depressions were of less than six months' duration.
• A summary of the full study can be found in Ward, E., King, M., et al Randomised controlled trial of non-directive counselling, cognitive-behaviour therapy, and usual general practitioner care for patients with depression. I: Clinical Effectiveness, BMJ No 7273, December 2000.

Affirmotive's views

Although the effectiveness of counselling has been studied namely on the subject of depression, it is obvious that professional counselling is a preferred method in the effective treatment of dysfunctional behaviours, relationship problems, marital and family breakdown, work place issues, trauma and post trauma treatment and recovery, mood disorders, eating disorders, addictions, and anxiety disorders.

For the successful  treatment of emotionally based sexual disorders, including sexual dysfunction, sexual dysfunctional behaviours, sexual trauma, sex addictions, sexual compulsions and obsessions, the specialist skills of a professional sex therapist are necessary in addition to counselling. Affirmotive's Heide McConkey is a professional sex therapist and professional counsellor with a specific knowledge of sex.

There is a myth that attending counselling is a sign of weakness, that strong people maintain a "stiff upper lip" and have no need for counselling. Exploring one's feelings and emotions with a view to leading a more positive way of life is a sign of courage rather than of weakness. Problems and difficulties that are not dealt with do not simply go away, they can mount up and in time cause a major crisis.

Another myth is that counselling is only for people who have mental health problems, and that you have to be completely unable to cope to consider counselling. This is untrue - many people find counselling enables them to cope with specific problems such as sexual problems, relationship breakdown, work place issues, bereavement or addictive behaviours. Those who attend counselling are simply ordinary people who wish to work towards living a more healthy and positive lifestyle.

Some people think that counsellors are there to give them advice and tell them what they should do in a particular situation. Professional counsellors do not work in this way, but aim to help people to explore their situations and possible solutions and work out which is the right way forward for them.

• The effectiveness of psychotherapy has been documented by more than 500 scientific studies, putting it among the most tested and validated of health interventions.
A study of some 15,000 clients treated with a range of psychotherapy methods showed treatments to be highly effective in helping individuals, couples and families resolve their various difficulties and achieve their treatment goals.
• Moreover, there is convincing evidence that effective therapy has a beneficial impact upon the immune system and even on the health of family members.
• Clients undertaking regular therapy can expect to begin feeling better fairly rapidly and to gain substantial relief from their symptoms.
• Fundamental change and lasting relief from longstanding emotional issues is achievable.

References

Howard, K & O'Mahoney, M. How much outpatient psychology is enough? Behavioural Healthcare Tomorrow. 1996, June.
Lebow, J. New Science for Psychotherapy, Networker, 1997, March/April.
Lipsey, M & Wilson, D. The efficacy of psychological, educational and behavioural treatment, American Psychologist. 1993, 48:1181-1209.