Facilitating the identification and exploration of subpersonalities or possible selves is a strategy by which therapists seek to promote positive cognitive, emotional, and behavioural change in psychotherapy. Over the history of psychotherapy, many forms of therapy have worked with inner diversity generally, and representations or subpersonalities specifically. Early methods include
Jungian analysis,
psychosynthesis,
transactional analysis, and
gestalt therapy. These were followed by some forms of
hypnotherapy and the
inner child work of
John Bradshaw and others. Meanwhile, a number of psychotherapists have developed comprehensive techniques to support the active expression of subpersonalities and possible selves. These include British psychotherapist
Paul Newham who pioneered the therapeutic use of expressive arts to explore subpersonalites through costume, mask, drama, and voice. A recent and method is
Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS therapy), developed by
Richard C. Schwartz. He sees
DID alters as on the same continuum as IFS parts (subpersonalities), the only difference being that alters are more polarized and split off from the rest of the internal system. == Therapeutic outcomes ==