Voice Dialogue: Working from Principles, not Protocols
One of the things I continue to value most about Voice Dialogue is that it is not a rigid method. Hal and Sidra Stone developed an approach that leaves room for movement, creativity, and personal interpretation.
At ITP, we try to keep that spirit alive. We teach the core principles with care, while resisting the temptation to turn Voice Dialogue into a fixed set of techniques or a prescribed protocol.
At its heart, the work is both simple and profound: we are made up of different inner parts, each with its own voice, needs, and perspective. By taking these parts seriously and entering into dialogue with them, we can develop greater awareness and more freedom of choice.
At the same time, we learn to observe what happens between these different sides of ourselves. When two parts are in direct opposition, we do not necessarily have to choose one over the other. Instead, a position can emerge from which both sides can be heard, experienced, and understood.
Perhaps this is one of the greatest strengths of Voice Dialogue: the principles are clear, but the form is free to evolve.
Voice Dialogue and Hearing Voices
A good example of such a development is the use of Voice Dialogue with people who hear voices.
My involvement began in 1988, when psychiatrist Marius Romme and Sandra Escher were looking for a different way of working with voice hearing. After attending a two-day Voice Dialogue course with me in Amsterdam, they invited me to take part in an experiment.
Together with, among others, clinical psychologist Jerien Koolbergen, I worked for a year with a group of around ten voice hearers. The results were promising: participants learned to cope better with their voices, and for some, the number of voices decreased.
At the same time, I discovered that I needed to adapt my way of working. Most participants did not experience their voices as “subpersonalities.” It was therefore important to connect with the reality as they themselves experienced it.
The principles remained the same, but the form became more flexible.
During the training sessions I gave in Maastricht, I met psychiatrist Dirk Corstens in 1992. He saw how Voice Dialogue opened up new possibilities for engaging directly with voices, and over the following decades he developed this approach further within psychiatry. His work also explored the meaning, and sometimes the protective function, behind negative or threatening voices.
It is remarkable to see how a small experiment has developed and deepened over nearly forty years. In June, Dirk and I spoke about this history, his current approach, and recent research into speaking with voices.
Read the transcript of “Hearing Voices and Voice Dialogue” and listen to the podcast
Documentary “My Word Against Mine” about living with hearing voices on television on 13 September in the Netherlands and 14 September in Belgium. Includes an online post-screening discussion with Dirk Corstens: mwthm.cerrutifilm.nl
Creating Space for New Applications
We see the same freedom to work creatively from the underlying principles in the work of our students.
Last years Master students developed the following:
Katjalisa Reiter connects Voice Dialogue with her work on intimacy, relationships, and the slow sex movement. She works with the energetic dimension of Voice Dialogue and with what we sometimes call the “volume control”: how can you consciously increase or decrease a particular energy without becoming completely identified with it?
Monique Evers, Brigitte van Ardenne, and Janine van Hees apply Voice Dialogue principles in their Female Leadership programs.
Maud Gussenhoven and Yinske Silva are developing the Mama Monologues, bringing different inner voices and experiences of motherhood onto the stage.
Ruby Ochoa chose film. For her master’s project, she created a professional short film that expresses the essence of Voice Dialogue in her own way.
Very different forms, all rooted in the same underlying principles. This is what we hope to pass on to our participants: learn the principles thoroughly, and then explore how Voice Dialogue can continue to evolve through your own work.
Coming Up in Italy: the Voice Dialogue Summer Academy – Last minute!
From 19 to 27 September 2026, our international Voice Dialogue Summer Academy will take place in Varese, Italy.
For nine days, we will stay together at the beautiful Villa Cagnola estate on Lake Varese.
The international group will work intensively on both professional development and personal transformation.
We will return to the roots of Voice Dialogue, the Psychology of Selves, and Transformational Psychology, while also exploring how the work can continue to develop in creative and contemporary ways.
It will be an intensive international gathering in a beautiful setting, with space for reflection, nature, connection, and exchange.In July 10 – 18, 2027 we have the following edition.
View the program and practical information for the Voice Dialogue Summer Academy
In November: Working with Voice Hearers
In November, Dirk Corstens and Robert Stamboliev will offer an advanced training on applying Voice Dialogue with people who hear voices.
In this way, the developments Dirk and I discuss in our interview will be given a very practical continuation.
We will explore questions such as: How do you enter into direct dialogue with voices? How do you truly connect with the lived experience of a voice hearer? How do you avoid moving too quickly into steering, interpreting, or solving? And how can you support someone in developing a more conscious and freer relationship with the different voices they experience?
Dirk brings decades of experience working with voice hearers. I bring my experience with Voice Dialogue and with the development of this application from the earliest experiments onward.
This training day is part of the three-day Voice Dialogue in Mental Health Care program, taking place on 11, 12, and 13 November 2026.
For practical information and registration, please contact the ITP..
This training is open only to participants with at least one year of training and experience in Voice Dialogue.
Voice Dialogue Keeps Evolving
When I look at all these different developments — from the early experiments with voice hearers to theatre, film, relationship work, and our international Summer Academy — I see the same principle returning again and again.
Voice Dialogue remains alive when we take the principles seriously without trying to fix the form.
We do not all have to work in the same way. But we do need to know what we are working from.
I hope these examples inspire you to continue exploring, experimenting, and deepening your own work.
I look forward to meeting you at one of our trainings — online, in the Netherlands, or somewhere else in the world.
Warm regards,
Robert Stamboliev
ITP – Voice Dialogue World
Voice Dialogue World | Summer Academy | Interview with Dirk Corstens
