‘Education is a kind of continuing dialogue, and a dialogue assumes different point of views’.

Ontwikkelingsgerichte dialoog

Het begrip dialoog wordt op verschillende manier in onze samenleving gebruikt en eigenlijk te pas en te onpas. Dat leidt tot veel verwarring. Vaak wordt gesproken over een dialoog terwijl er sprake is van een gesprek, of zelfs een discussie. Als er sprake is van een echte dialoog hebben we het over een vorm van gesprek waar ‘een vrije ruimte’ is van onderzoeken, bevragen op standpunten, visies en meningen. In mijn aanpak baseer ik mij op the Dialogical Self Approach (Dialogical Self Theory, 2010).

You are not a unity; you are a multiplicity who tries to become a unity.

The Dialogical Self Approach (DSA) is a practical methodology used in coaching, training and counseling which invites clients to explore and understand entirely different sides of themselves (e.g. I as enjoyer of life, I as hard worker, I as child of my parents) and their important emotions. The approach focuses on aspects of oneself that have not only very different emotional meanings, but also imply conflicts and oppositions. 

One of the most important life tasks is to build a relation between one’s most opposite sides and find a relative balance between them. In order to realize this, you have to find out what is the relation between them. Somebody who experiences a high level of stress may discover that he finds himself in a (one) position (e.g., I as always managing), while other important I-positions (e.g., I as looking for depth and meaning) are pressing from the background because they lack attention and fulfillment. The procedure brings such I-positions in contact with each other so that the one can learn from the other so that they can cooperate rather than fight.