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Dialog Technique

Difficulty: Intermediate | Time: 15-30 minutes | Best for: Exploring conflicts, understanding different perspectives

Overview

Dialog is an imaginary conversation between two or more characters, voices, or perspectives. This technique helps you explore complex situations by giving different aspects of your experience a voice. Dialoging characters can be almost anything, including:

• People (living, dead, or imaginary)
• Different parts of yourself (your anxious self, confident self, inner critic, wise self)
• Dream images or symbols
• Abstract concepts (fear, love, success, creativity)
• Parts of the body
• Life events or situations
• Competing goals or values

Using the dialog technique allows these different voices to speak out, discuss, negotiate, argue, and potentially find common ground. Often, unexpected insights emerge when you let different perspectives have their full say.

When to Use

• When facing a difficult decision with competing options
• To understand a conflict or tension in your life
• When you feel torn between different desires or values
• To explore your relationship with someone or something
• When you want to understand different aspects of yourself
• To work through recurring dreams or symbols
• When dealing with physical symptoms or body issues

How To

1. Identify the different voices, perspectives, or characters you want to explore

2. Set up the dialog by writing the first character's name followed by a colon

3. Let that character speak authentically—don't censor or edit

4. Write the second character's name and let them respond

5. Continue the conversation, letting it flow naturally without forcing a resolution

6. Include as many characters as feel relevant (3+ voices can create rich conversations)

7. Pay attention to surprises—often the most valuable insights come from unexpected responses

Examples

Scenario Ideas:

• Two job opportunities having a conversation about their benefits
• Your anxious self talking with your confident self about an upcoming challenge
• A dialog between you and a deceased loved one
• Your current self having a conversation with your future self
• Different aspects of a major life decision (security vs. adventure, for example)

Sample Dialog

Lower back: Hello, again. It's me, I'm back here hurting, aching and being uncomfortable.

Me: Really? I thought I gave you plenty of attention last month, with some stretching and massage. What do you want?

Lower back: I guess I need constant attention, not just a little bit here and there. You have to think about me all the time when you move around. Maybe you should think about all the muscles around me—and not make me work so hard. It isn't fair. Make those other muscles work too and I won't bother you.

Abdominal muscles: Yeah, that's right. I'm part of the picture and I bet if you spoke to each of your nearby muscles-- your glutes, your upper back, and all of those muscles in your torso they'd want some love and attention too. And then one area won't hurt as much. This is a community effort!

Me: Wow, I never thought about it as a team approach. What would that actually look like day-to-day?

Next Steps

• Experiment with 3+ character conversations for richer perspectives
• Try dialoging with abstract concepts like "Success" or "Fear"
• Create ongoing dialogs—return to the same characters over multiple sessions
• Let characters evolve and change their positions over time
• Try group conversations where multiple aspects of yourself discuss an issue

Related Techniques

• Altered Viewpoint Technique: Use third-person perspective to develop distinct character voices
• Unsent Letter Technique: Transform one-way letters into back-and-forth conversations
• Portrait Technique: Develop detailed character sketches before engaging in dialog with them