Ego State Therapy

Ego State Therapy is a powerful and brief therapy based on the premise that personality is composed of separate parts, rather than being a whole.  These parts (which everyone has) are called ego states.  The therapist works directly with the states that can best benefit from change, rather than merely working with an intellectual, talkative state.

We are each made up of a number of different states; each has its own feeling of power, weakness, emotion, logic, or other personal traits.  When we say, "Part of me wants to," we are talking about an ego state.  When we say, "I feel at peace with myself on this issue," we are talking about our ego states agreeing, not having an internal struggle.  Our various states help to make our lives rich, productive, and enjoyable.  A state harboring pain can cause unrest and unwanted emotional reactions.

The goals of the therapy are

1) To locate ego states harboring pain, trauma, anger, or frustration and facilitate expression, release, comfort, and empowerment (It is unresolved states that come out and make us feel out of control. They are our internal tender spots),

2) To facilitate functional communication among ego states (the statement "I hate myself when I am like that" indicates two states lacking in proper communication)

3) To help clients learn their ego states so that the states may be better used to the clients' benefit (e.g., allowing the client to, at one time, be open to enjoy emotional experiences and, at another time, be assertive to feel expressed when challenged).

Where did our ego states come from and do we all have the same ones?

We are not born with our different parts or ego states.  We make them as we live.  Our ego states are formed when we do something over and over again.  This ‘over and over again’ learning creates a physical neural pathway in the brain that has its own level of emotion, abilities, and experience of living.

If, as a child, I bring my mother a cup of tea and she gives me a hug and thanks me, then the next time I want some nurturance I may do something nice for my mother or for someone else.  If this continues to work for me, and I continue to do nurturing things for people, and I continue to get positive feedback, I will develop a nurturing ego state.  At future times in life, when I want to feel a connection with someone this nurturing part may come out and my feelings and actions will be nurturing.  Some people may be good at bringing that part of me out.

If, as a child, I am feeling a need for attention and I tell a joke or do something funny, and if I get a positive response (that’s really good), and if I continue to get a positive response over months and years for being funny, I may develop a joking, comedian, ego state.  If, on the other hand, when I tell those first jokes, if I get a, “Be quiet Gordon” response, I will probably not develop a joking ego state. We each have our own special parts according to the experiences we have lived.  The ways our family and friends react to us help us develop the particular ego states we have.

By repeating actions over and over again the brain will grow and connect in such a way that will create a physical neural pathway that is an ego state.  We will switch into an ego state when a need for that state occurs, or when an injured part is reminded of the injury it may come out in an attempt to gain some resolution. That is why a bad feeling can come over us all at once.

Our brains are composed of cells, called neurons. We are born with millions of neurons.  We can lose them through injury and aging.  Thankfully, we have a lot, and the ones we have can be trained, and retrained. Our brains can grow. We can grow new neurons and we can grow new connections between our neurons.

An interesting thing is that our brains grow according to stimulation.  When mice were raised in an active environment their brains grew bigger than mice grown in a passive environment.  Like muscles, brains grow bigger with use.

When kittens wore special goggles that allowed them to see only horizontal shapes for their first 4 or 5 months of life, they became mostly blind to vertical shapes when the goggles were removed.  So our brains actually grow according to the amount of stimulation we get, and according to the type of stimulation we get. The goggles made the kittens practice seeing only horizontal shapes.  When we do a nurturing behaviour over and over again, that is like the kittens special goggles.  Our brains develop according to that repeated behaviour.

That is how we develop ego states.  By doing the same type of activity over and over we grow connections that create a specific neural pathway that is an ego state.  An ego state is a physical part of our brain.  Our brains are trained to have the ego states we have.  An ego state is a grouping of neural fibres that have been trained in such a way to provide us with specific skills and emotions.  Our ego states are our resources that we can call upon according to our needs. They are called ego states because whichever state we are in, we think of it is 'me', we have ego identity there.

Each of us has our own distinctive set of ego states that we have trained.  No one else will have ego states that exactly match our own, but they may have some ego states that are very similar to some of ours.

Ego State Therapy can help with:

• Anxiety, panic attacks and psychosomatic pain.
• Work performance, feeling blocked or blocking yourself.
• Emotional problematic patterns or issues.
• Personality traits that cause discomfort or harm.
• Inner-conflict resolution.
• Some health challenges.

Lorna and John Jackson have both completed the Diploma course in Ego State Therapy under the supervision of Dr Gordon Emmerson Ph.D. the ultimate authority on ego-state therapy. Formerly a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Victoria University in Melbourne, he has authored two books: Ego State Therapy (2003) and Advanced Therapeutic Techniques and Interventions (2006). http://www.egostatetherapy.com/

We use Ego State therapy combined with our clinical hypnotherapy treatment with those who require or request this type of therapy.

The first session is two hours and cost $250.00 incl gst. Any follow up sessions are $125.00 incl gst.

To book a session of Ego State therapy just call the clinic on 07-38797677.