The Committee In Your Head - The 5 Parts of Self

 “My inner child is too scared to talk right now.” That was the first thing I said when my mentor, and re-decision therapist, encouraged me to get in touch with the part of me that was worried she wasn’t good enough to be a psychotherapist.

He was patiently waiting for me to sort through the fear and helped me call upon my inner Adult to come support the child.

I noticed my inner Critic was being particularly nasty to my Child, making me feel small, helpless, and hopeless. My mentor gently walked me through listening to each of those parts of me.

Within minutes, I noticed myself feeling lighter, braver, more empowered. I left that supervision session, not only knowing myself better, but having a better understanding of the countertransference I was experiencing with my psychotherapy patient.

That was one of the first times I became acquainted with my 5 parts of self, and I have used that committee in my head to guide me through private and professional decisions ever since.

What is the PAC Model?

These parts of self are based on The PAC Model (Parent, Adult, Child). This psychological framework plays an important role in the main type of psychotherapy I utilize as treatment for my clients: Redecision Therapy. You can watch my video here to get the gist of the PAC Model.

This model is based on the idea that each of our parts interacts with one another, as well as all 5 parts of any person with whom we interact!

This is the original idea behind Transactional Analysis (Eric Berne, late 1950's), as we can have any of our 5 parts interacting with or engaging in "transactions" with someone else's 5 parts.

What is Redecision Therapy?

Closely related to this concept is Redecision Therapy, where we get to know our parts, (allowing them to be heard, supported, and given healthy "jobs" to do), so they can operate in harmony with one another as we change our emotional "wiring", which allows us to navigate the world from a place of purposeful decision-making.

I find it helpful to first teach my clients about Negative Core Beliefs and Self-Protective Behaviors before moving on to learn about our different parts of self.

As an example of one of our five parts, here is a video about our Critic, which is often the loudest "voice" for most people:

As you watched that video, did anything pop into your head about what you hear from your Critic? Did any of those examples sound familiar to you?

I am currently working on other introductory videos to the other parts of self, but you can browse my YouTube Channel and even subscribe to get notified as soon as the new videos are posted.