I specialize in mindfulness and therefore I do a variety of mindfulness exercise with my clients. In particular I like the exercise on sub personalities , or how I become to name it, “Befriending the many aspects of ourselves ”

We all have a story we tell ourselves and believe it. Sometimes we go through out life carrying that story and identifying with just one part of ourselves without being aware we have many and not one single aspect of ourselves completely identify us. We have many aspects of ourselves and we might not like some and other we really love.

To start this exercise I usually ask my client to commit to some stillness and invite them to close their eyes or have a soft gaze towards the floor so they can concentrate. We start by doing a relaxation technique such as breathing or body scan. I then ask them to think of a  part of themselves, what ever comes up first, could be their loving part, or friendly, or angry part or trauma part. Because this could bring up a lot of feelings, I am there with them holding a safe space so they can explore this part. I ask to give this part a name, a visual aspect such as a symbol or a human being dressed a certain way. We explore together what does this part of themselves say, or does or needs. We do this for about 6 times bringing up at least 6 different aspects of themselves. We have created a list with sub personalities and explore them deeply. We then move to an art project in which clients draw a circle and put their different aspects in pie  like shapes around the circle created a mandala. This is the part were clients get very creative and draw symbols or humans or animals. I also allow them to cut and paste from magazines so that they do not feel frustrated with the drawing part if they do not want to draw.I provide them with a variety of materials so they can explore what feels best and represents their aspects best. This is an art expressive part of the exercise and one that puts in visuals their many aspects. Once we are done, I encourage the clients to see the many parts that they have and this helps them not  to identify with only one. This is particularly helpful with clients that have gone through trauma and see themselves as their  trauma or their anxiety or their depression,. We are not only one aspect, we are many. The second part is building self compassion for each aspect now that we have explored it and know what they need or get triggered from or perhaps where they come from and why. We are more likely to develop compassion when we understand where that aspect of our self comes from and why its there. We spend a couple of sessions developing self compassion and care for each aspect. The results are amazing, clients are so receptive. I particularly love doing this exercise with adolescents!