I'm doing schema therapy for my T. I have a lot of trouble with the "pretend you have different personalities inside you" part of it. Then when we do chair work, I have a lot of trouble talking from one personality to the other. Its like to me, I only have one personality and its very cohesive.. I am a very logical/rational type of person so I have a lot of trouble with abstract things like this. I find it hard to imagine the feelings as separate entities inside my own head, let alone separate PEOPLE!

With the chair work you are supposed to sit in your chair as one mode (or personality), and then talk to an invisible person in the other chair, who is supposed to be a different mode/personality of you. It is all a bit mind blowing. Then you are supposed to go into the other chair and be that personality, and then respond to the old you in the other chair, etc etc. You basically have a conversation with different parts of yourself and that is where the healing lies, I think. Like eg. You could have your vulnerable child self in one chair and the detatched protector mode in the other chair and you have some sort of conversation with yourself.

Now, being a numbersey/realistic/engineerey- type person, I have a bit of trouble with this. I cant get past the "omg, Im sitting here talking to myself" bit and I cannot get into character for each mode, as you are supposed to do. You are supposed to really get into each mode in these chair conversations, and really have an emotional thing going on with the other personalities of yourself. I find its a bit too "wayyyy out there" for me, lol. Anyone have any tips for this? Cuz i know its very important in this type of therapy so I'd like to be able to do it. I asked my T and she said "some people take years before they can do it" so although that makes me feel better (its not only me), I need to make some sort of effort to be able to do this.