Shadowing Practice: Empty Chair Therapy: Heal Your Past, Improve Your Future - Learn English Speaking with Video

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One of the simplest and most useful exercises that psychotherapy has gifted to us is known as the empty chair technique.
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A client who has been wrestling with their feelings towards someone
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is gently requested to stop discussing them in the third person and is instead invited to face a chair
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and start talking to this bit of furniture as if it were, to all intents, the specific troubling person in their life, perhaps a long-dead absent father,
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a neglectful mother, or a traitorous so-called friend.
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Many of us spend a good deal of time ruminating on difficult people in the recesses of our minds.
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We say that so-and-so really deserves a comeuppance, or that we'd love to give X or Y a taste of what we actually think.
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We find ourselves returning to them again and again late at night and on the journey to work, their offences interrupting our sleep and spoiling our digestion.
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And yet we rarely speak with any degree of clarity or sincerity, out of a fear of retribution,
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a dread of vulnerability, a pessimism as to the chances of being understood, or perhaps stubbornly ingrained good manners.
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The feelings remain in us in a latent form,
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contributing to a layer of static frustration that damages our health and lends a compulsive quality to our moods.
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Now, under the aegis of a therapist, we can give form to our cloudy annoyance.
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Once we move past the hesitation at the particular strangeness of discoursing with a seat, we may find that we are a great deal more eloquent than we supposed,
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far more sure of what we needed to say, far more at home with letting the world energetically know how things look through our eyes.
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Dad, why did you have children if you couldn't even be bothered to get to know them?
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Why did you think that your responsibility stopped at providing for them materially?
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Chris, why do you pretend that you don't want to be intrusive
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when in fact you just never take an interest in me, despite the hours that I've listened to your troubles?
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All this might not seem so different from previous remarks like, I'm pretty angry with X or Y,
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but the impact of a concrete articulation and a public audition is of a different order.
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Anger is a poison and to speak it is to drain it of its malevolent force.
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We falsely imagine that the only speeches we can ever usefully make are to flesh and blood attentive listeners.
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In truth, it may matter far less that we are heard than that we have a chance to speak.
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The empty chair technique is liable to be especially helpful to
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those of us who had to grow up to be extremely good boys and girls.
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There may be few opportunities to be anything but when dad is an alcoholic or has a violent temper, temper, mum is neglectful, or a sibling is very ill.
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We may lack any knowledge of how to complain because, in our formative period, we sensed correctly that our survival depended upon meekness and good humour.
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We learned to smile and appease when we would have needed a long wail at the unfairness and cruelty of it all.
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Our silence may have won us a safe enough passage into adulthood.
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Its ongoing nature threatens to ruin the remaining years.
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We may fear that we won't be able to get too far into a speech
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without either collapsing into humiliating tears or escalating into unmanageable fury.
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The empty chair technique can reassure us on both fronts.
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There can be ways of speaking without shouting, of saying no without being alarming, of standing up for ourselves without coming across as entitled or unworthy.
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We can assert our needs without bringing about the catastrophe we fear.
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And we can start right now, without even waiting for a psychotherapist, by looking across the room to the nearest available chair
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and asking who should be sitting there and what if I needed to tell them for the longest time.

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Ever Felt Stuck Repeating Unspoken Words? This Technique Can Help

Imagine this: You’re lying awake at night, replaying a conversation with someone who hurt you. You know exactly what you *wish* you’d said, but you never got the chance. Maybe it’s a parent who missed your childhood, a friend who let you down, or even a version of yourself from the past. The video we’re exploring today introduces the empty chair technique—a way to finally speak those unspoken words. It’s not just about healing; it’s a chance to practice expressing complex emotions clearly, which is perfect for english speaking practice.

Useful Chunks & Collocations to Master

  • Wrestling with feelings: “I’ve been wrestling with feelings of anger toward my brother for years.”
  • Latent form: “Her sadness stayed in a latent form until she finally talked about it.”
  • Concrete articulation: “Saying ‘I feel ignored’ is a concrete articulation of her pain.”
  • Under the aegis of: “Under the aegis of a therapist, he learned to process his grief.”
  • Compulsive quality: “His worry took on a compulsive quality, making it hard to focus.”

Your Shadowing Challenge: Speak Your Truth (and Improve Your English!)

Ready to try shadowspeak? The shadowing technique is all about mimicking native speakers to boost fluency—and this video is a great tool. Here’s your task: Pick a 30-second clip where the speaker talks about the empty chair technique. Play it once, then hit pause and repeat it out loud, matching the tone and pace. Focus on phrases like “giving form to our cloudy annoyance” or “standing up for ourselves without coming across as entitled.” For extra practice, find a shadowing site to record yourself and compare. Not only will you improve your English, but you might also release a little of that “static frustration” the video mentions. Remember: The goal isn’t perfection—it’s about speaking, even if it’s to an empty chair. So grab a seat, hit play, and start shadowing today!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

StructureIn the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does itis known · being understood · be bothered
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowhas gifted · I've listened

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →