Trina Swerdlow is an artist, a self-help author, and a
workshop facilitator. Over the last 15 years she has created
many characters for various greeting cards, books, and corporations.
Trina has found that some of the characters she's developed
are based on parts of her own internal cast of characters.
Getting to know these "outer characters" has assisted
her in connecting emotionally to her "inner characters."
In one chapter of Trina's forthcoming book on this subject,
she illustrates Hal and Sidra Stone's wonderful psychological
car analogy. In doing so, she invites readers to explore
the question: "who's driving my car?" As shown
here, her illustrations depicting the emerging Aware Ego
include four views.
This example is based on the dynamics of a thirty-five year
old woman named Amy. Her inner character in the passenger's
seat is her Agreeable (Conformer) Self: the part that "never
rocks the boat." This Self thrives on going along with
what others want. By contrast, the character driving her
car is her Sad Self: the heavyhearted part of Amy. A strong
role that Amy grew up with was continually trying to please
her family members. Later this behavior got Amy labels such
as the perfect employee and the perfect wife.
When feelings of sadness became more and more prevalent
in her life, Amy began seeing a therapist and taking personal
growth workshops. She attended one of my workshops and learned
a lot about her "inner cast of characters." By
inviting her Rebellious Self out of the trunk she was able
to start setting healthy limits in her life, therefore taking
care of herself with others. After further integration,
she was able to connect with her Happy Self and give her
Sad Self some much needed--time off.
Finally, by better understanding the opposites within, Amy
now has "real choice" about many of the roads
she takes in life. As a result, she also has access to a
colorful cast of characters who make the experience much
richer!
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