The Healthy Adult Mode is like a stage director in charge of coordinating the modes. The Healthy Adult places the Vulnerable Child centre stage, as it is the most important player. The Angry Child is placed close by. But the bad actor Maladaptive Coping Modes which have been running the show need to be moved off to the side of stage as the Healthy Adult employs new methods of coping. The Punitive Parent is banished from the theatre and the Demanding Parent is put in the corner, only to speak when spoken to. The Happy Child is free to skip along the stage and do chalk drawings on the floor.

Early in therapy, the Maladaptive Coping Modes will sneak back in the limelight. So it's critical that the directing Healthy Adult stays vigilant to signs of old habits creeping in and deliberately uses healthy skills and its new understanding of how to make changes.

 In the early stages of treatment, this is exhausting and it may not even notice when it slips up. Yet perseverance of this adaptive state is the only way to create meaningful change over time and eventually their old modes will learn their place.