I work internationally as a psychologist, trainer, coach and relationship therapist. I am inspired to enhance consciousness in individuals and organisations.
Man often thinks and acts mechanically, identifies himself with all sorts of thoughts and ideas and as a result events ‘happen’ to him, without any awareness or choice. What you are in essence, sleeps.
Consciousness work is essential to ‘awaken’, to liberate yourself of your conditioning and to be able to make real choices. This applies to the individual, but also to organisations and countries. Our planet needs consciousness!
My approach in coaching? After a clear diagnosis I propose a number of sessions, depending on the question this usually varies between 3 and 10 appointments. In this trajectory often a swift transformation takes place, through an approach in which I integrate different methods. A colleague described this as follows: coaching with a therapeutic touch, an eclectic approach from the ’empty middle’.
Since 1983 I put the Voice Dialogue method on the map in Europe and founded the Institute for Transformational Psychology (ITP) in 1988. The educational and training programs of the ITP have been developed under my guidance, in interaction with a selection of trainers and students.
Next to that I have developed leadership programs for various organizations and I also enjoy facilitating the development of excellence of process workers (trainers, coaches, therapists, managers, teachers).
To Voice Dialogue facilitators I offer supervision and Masterclasses, worldwide.
Over the years I have written many articles, some of these are on this website. In 1988 I wrote the book ‘The energetics of Voice Dialogue’. This has become an important study book for Voice Dialogue facilitators.
Recommendation by Hal and Sidra Stone
“Robert Stamboliev is a teacher of teachers and we wish to honor him appropriately. Robert, perhaps more than anyone else, has been responsible for introducing Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves in Europe. His trainings have produced – in addition to excellent facilitators – an amazing variety of brilliant teachers and creative innovators.”
Biography
Born in Italy, son of a Dutch mother and Bulgarian father, we moved to Canada when I was three. From age 6 I grew up in The Netherlands, but have continued travelling. With this multicultural background I was looking for my identity from early age on. Oftentimes I felt like an observer, an outsider, while on the other hand I immersed myself in social life, for instance as a student representative in high school. It was as if leading two lives simultaneously and this often felt like a split. This is an important reason that from very early age on I was absorbed in studying human consciousness and followed my own path. I started doing yoga when I was 15, followed by the study of the work of Krishnamurti. After secondary school, I studied social sciences (andragology) for a few years but when this did not inspire me enough, I decided to work as a barkeeper and night watchman, and develop my own study.
During this period, I began practising T’ai Chi Chuan and developed myself in the field of music, theatre and voice coaching, also as a teacher. I also took a course in Gestalt psychology and attended training in shamanism and energy work.
In 1982b I met Hal and Sidra Stone and came into contact with their work. Voice Dialogue gave me a theoretical foundation in the psychology of transformation. This inspired me so much that I went to Los Angeles to study with Hal Stone as a mentor and obtained my Master’s degree in Psychology in 1988.
After returning to the Netherlands, I began my professional life as a therapist, coach, trainer and teacher and founded the Institute for Transformational Psychology (ITP). During the process of working with clients, groups and colleagues, my learning and deepening continued organically, where I was able to apply what I had learned to my work. The thread over the years is exploring new paths and ways of working. If these turned out to be successful, I integrated them in individual practice and in the teaching package.
Examples of fitting methods are: Voice Dialogue, focusing, voice coaching, dream work, relationship coaching, body and energy work, group dynamics, family constellations, working with archetypes, psychodrama, voicedrama, creative techniques. Combinations also resulted in new ways of working and applications.
Other matters I experimented with a lot as part of training and coaching is the effect of nature, culture, location and nutrition. All this with the objective of facilitating an optimum consciousness process in participants/clients and developing ‘soulfulness’.
For me methods and techniques are never a goal in itself, but simply tools. I work from a relaxed and centred position and am open for whatever presents itself. We also call this ‘working form the empty middle’. In martial arts in the East, when a warrior has mastered all techniques, this is the final phase, letting go of all knowledge and working from ‘no mind’. This is not an end point either, more an infinite principle, through I keep developing…
The teaching package as it is given now at the ITP was developed and shaped in the abovementioned way. It is based on experiential learning. Self-knowledge is the basis of mastery and the coach is the instrument. Personal process and learning the various techniques go hand in hand.
I introduced and developed Voice Dialogue in the Netherlands and most European countries, and have started working in Asia and South America. I am affiliated to several institutes as an advisor.
My mission is the enhancement of consciousness. Exploring it from the inside and through study. Developing new syntheses and working methods. Trying out and implementing successful experiments. In coaching as well as in training. I enjoy this and like to share this with others.