PERSON AND PERSONA

When you first meet a client, you actually don’t meet the person, you meet the persona. You meet the person’s mask which he uses as his self-image and/or social image. Yet somewhere behind that persona is the real person, although it is often hidden deep within. And sometimes, the person doesn’t even not herself or himself as a person, only as a persona. Now as a way of managing one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in the real world, one’s persona can provide a person a safe place. That’s why we all create various personas and use them as we move in different circles. In itself, this is not bad, but it can be misused.

Yet while a person’s persona may provide some protection, it can also—and typically does— create a sense of inauthenticity, and when exaggerated it can even generate a sense of de- personalization. That is, a person can get lost in their persona to such a extent that one no longer knows who he is. “Who am I apart from the roles I play?” “Who or what is the real me?” Sometimes clients come to coaching asking these kinds of questions.