Abstract

Connecting to our inner lives can foster healing, self-development and self-awareness. This unique book looks in depth at ten major contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches which all use inner dialogue as a way of developing both professionally and personally.

Each chapter is written by an expert in their field, some of whom were chosen to contribute by the founder of the approach. The authors include personal stories of how they have used the approach in their own lives and work as therapists, giving a deeper insight into each method. As well as developing a connection to the mind, several of the approaches focus on deepening an awareness of the body and listening to its voice. Approaches covered include the Jungian approach, Gestalt therapy, Focusing, internal family systems therapy, and Hakomi.

Drawing on both Eastern and Western traditions and methods, this fascinating book will be of interest to psychotherapists, counsellors and students, as well as anyone with an interest in inner dialogue, healing and personal development.

This new book by Chuck Eigen feels like a winner to me. He has chosen for his authors significant figures in the consciousness world representing a diversity of theory and methodology. He has asked them to be more personal in their presentation so the reader could feel in a more personal way what this particular approach has meant to them in their lives. The result is a series of chapters that are fascinating to read and that bring to the reader a more direct and intense experience of the various approaches. I enjoyed the material and came away feeling that I had really been connected to a deeper experience and understanding of the work of so many of my colleagues. Chuck had a particular kind of vision, which he implemented in bringing this book together, and it most certainly has worked far beyond the usual anthologies.
Hal Stone, Ph.D., creator of Voice Dialogue, author of Embracing Heaven and Earth, Embracing Our Selves: The Voice Dialogue Manual, Partnering: A New Kind of Relationship, and several other well-known titles
Chuck Eigen has found a fascinating assortment from hundreds of psychotherapies that exist today. Inner Dialogue in Daily Life elaborates psychotherapies that enrich our inner lives and it speaks from the personal experiences of its finely selected authors. Readers will cross into the delicate and enlightening moments of the authors' experiences to discover what those therapies are all about.
Akira Ikemi, Ph.D., Professor, Kansai University Graduate School, of Professional Clinical Psychology
This book demonstrates the competence of self-reflection, a skill necessary for every therapist. I want students to read it to gain insight into the ways that therapists have developed reflective practices.
Nadya A. Fouad, Ph.D., ABPP, University Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Educational Psychology University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
This book is fascinating, inspiring, and real. It offers a wise perspective to healing which includes the human spirit—a perspective that modern medicine often lacks. The stories in this book are profoundly human. Reading it is like sitting at the elbow of wise people who have 'figured something out,' and they're letting you in on how they did it. Reading about the writers' journeys gave me a lot of hope for discovery through life—that you never stop learning, and that wisdom can grow.
Lisa Marr, M.D., Section Chief, Palliative Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico
This book targets three distinct readerships with equal effectiveness. If you are an experienced journeyman of the inner realms, but have not thought much of the philosophical underpinnings, this book will offer food for thought and inspiration. If you are widely read in the areas of psychology and spirituality, this book helps synthesize the places of intercept between Eastern and Western thought and between therapy and meditation. And if you have lived your life primarily in the social and cultural realms of practicality, this book may open doors to an interest in other aspects of self yet to be discovered. I felt as though I had been given the essential outline to the evolution of experiential psychology as it has developed in the twenty-first century.
Gael Ohlgren Rosewood, Faculty, The Rolf Institute and Continuum Movement
Inner Dialogue in Daily Life, edited by Charles H. Eigen, is an important book, which allows the reader to sample the rich, creative, and diverse approaches within the vast field of psychotherapy. Each chapter represents various points of view and approaches to psychotherapy. This book offers wisdom for cultivating personal insight, development and change. This book is a compelling read for all of us who wish to deepen our experience with our world and ourselves.
Robert Balaban, M.D., former Medical Faculty, Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin
Like the many facets of a crystal, this book brings together a variety of perspectives from individual practitioners in the healing professions. What is unique here, however, are the contributors' personal and professional sharings that bring together and help heal in even a small manner the terrible split in the Western world view between psyche and soma, mind and body, spirit and matter. These sharings are broad and inclusive in their understanding and practice of psychotherapy and human relationships. Chuck Eigen's editorial vision—that all people have within themselves both inner resources and psyche/body wisdom—has been achieved. The reader will not be disappointed.
Fred Gustafson, D.Min., Jungian analyst, author of The Black Madonna and Dancing Between Two Worlds: Jung and the Native American Soul; editor of The Moonlit Path: Reflections on the Dark Feminine
Inner Dialogue in Daily Life is an important book for our time that uncovers the rich terrain of the psyche. The ease with which each chapter unravels its complexity brings the reader to a deeper level of self-awareness through a multidimensional understanding of its nature. Inner Dialogue in Daily Life is a brilliantly composed book that I recommend to anyone who has an interest in more fully participating in his or her life.
Kalpana (Rose) M. Kumar, M.D., CEO and Medical Director, The Ommani, Center for Integrative Medicine, author of Becoming Real: Harnessing the Power of Menopause for Health and Success
Chuck Eigen's selection of authors, methods, and techniques is inspiring and powerful. His book is a great compilation of approaches acknowledging integration of different aspects of the personality with the endless resources of the body dimension. A tour de force of proven methods in the field.
Maria Florentina Sassoli y Ezcurdia, counselor, Primera Escuela Argentina de Psicologia Humanistica, Counseling Focusing Coordinator for Argentina, Certified Hakomi Therapist
Chuck Eigen is a wide-spectrum therapist with both personal and global interests. From his experience, he introduces us to ten experts of diverse methods who share intimately from their own lives about their work. The result is an informative, exciting, and inspiring book. Through each chapter, this book brings into the twenty-first century ancient wisdom for all. This brilliant book will bring our human race closer.
Arnold Mindell, creator of Process-Oriented Psychology, author of DreamBody, The Shaman's Body, and many other well-known titles
This book is an intriguing juxtaposition of chapters on a wide variety of approaches to mind/body healing, each written by prominent teachers of their respective approach. In addition to describing the approach, the writers are invited to include their personal journeys, which makes for engaging reading.
Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D., creator of Internal Family Systems Therapy, author of The Mosaic Mind, The Internal Family Systems Therapy Model, and You Are the One You've Been Waiting For

Chuck Eigen takes us on a journey with some of the great innovators in the field of experiential psychology. To read this book is to find the red thread that unifies these ten different approaches to psychotherapy, including, in the words of Eigen, the emphasis on the relationship with the inner life as well as the outer life. Following the medical model, therapists have often distanced themselves from their clients, creating a barrier that is often damaging to the therapeutic relationship. Like a fresh breath of air, in this book we not only find approaches that give way to the contrary, we also get a good glimpse of the authors themselves, and how their lives have been touched by the therapy they practice.

This book is an extremely useful and needed reference for all of us in this field, and I imagine it can be equally useful for people trying to decide what therapy to go for, or whom to work with, since, as Eigen points out, the therapist's state of mind and presence is her or his most exquisite remedy. The reader will have a much broader picture of his life and his possibilities after reading this compilation of essays.

Rosa Belendez, M.D., certified Hakomi trainer, Mexico City, Mexico