Goal
Getting to know the different I-positions or sub-persons in yourself in order to recognize them when you give trainings. By identifying with them you learn how the influence you both positive and negative in your work.

Requisites
● 8 – 12 pieces of papers on which you can write down the different I-positions
● List of possible I-positions or archetypes

Background
Everybody has all I-positions one can imagine within himself. The list of possible I-positions is a suggestion of positions you can think of. Feel free to use different names, words, characteristics etc. Everything is ok. The purpose of this exercise is that you recognize the I-positions in yourself and that you realize what they are telling you related to your work.

Two persons are doing this exercise. One is the facilitator and the other is the client. The one who is exploring the I-positions within himself is the client in this exercise.

Description
1. Decide for yourself which archetypes or I-positions are related to you and your work. Choose 8 – 12 different I-positions, which is the amount of sub persons that form your inner support team.

Note: you will recognize in the list I-positions that play an important role in your private life, for example, but not directly in your working life. For a result that is focused on your work just choose I-positions that are related to your working environment.

2. Write down the names of your support team on the pieces of paper. One word/ name on every paper.

So for example, you have recognized the roles “I as mother”, “I as rescuer”, “I as optimist”, “I as impatient”, “I as curious”, etc. in yourself in your working environment. Than you write on a paper the word “mother” and on another paper the word “rescuer” and on the third paper the word “optimist”, on the fourth paper the word “impatient”, etc.

3. Put all the papers in a half circle on the ground. Leave some space between the different papers.

4. The facilitator is standing in the middle in front of the half circle. The clients picks one of the papers and stands on it. First as a client really connect with the I-position you are standing on. E.g. feel what it does to you being a mother in your work.

5. Now the dialogue starts: the facilitator welcomes the client as the role he is standing on and start the discourse. Ask all kind of questions to find out how the mother in the client is related to the work as a trainer

For example: “Hi [name of the client]-as-mother, how are you? How do you as a mother feel about being a trainer? Are you as a mother concerned about something? Can the mother in you help you in a certain situation? Are you as a mother vulnerable in your work? In what situations? Do you have wishes, desires, fears, etc.

6. The client answers the questions the facilitator asks. He just says what he wants to say about it. By identifying yourself totally with the sub person in yourself, you will discover what this part of you is telling you from insight you. Where does it help you and when is it disturbing you.

7. When you are finished with one sub person, you go to the next one and it starts all over. Explore together all sub persons in you and listen to what they have to tell you.

8. Probably during the conversation, the client will discover that one part of himself disagrees with another part of himself. Speak aloud this inner disagreement so you feel the inner paradoxes by changing between those two sub persons in yourself.

Again, everybody has this kind of paradoxes insight himself. So that is ok, but be aware of that, certainly when you work with youth at risk. Your inner paradoxes can cause misunderstandings and miscommunication between the two of you.

9. If during the session you have the feeling that one chosen I-position should be changed by another one. Feel free to do so. By having a conversation with them and by so identifying with them, you will discover which I-positions form your support team play which role in the different situations in your work as a trainer.