P4 Retreat: North Carolina 2023

21 – 31 July 2023

Highlands, North Carolina

Yep, it’s that time again — our retreat for DID trauma survivors is soon coming upon us.   

Have you been considering this option?  For a weekend?  For a week?  All 10-days?  It’s not too late for you to look into this, but attendance is limited, and registration opens this month.   The official, ever-growing P4 Retreat website is adding more and more information about NC ‘ 23 each day.  Check it out!    P4DIDConference.com .

Last year, our P4 Retreat in Montana was an incredible experience.  It was a unique event, where a group of dissociative survivors were able to sit together for extended period of time, talk about living the dissociative life, participate in fun DID-inspired activities, have very helpful (and personal) conversations, and participate in meaningful group discussions on relevant topics.

• Where else can you go to spend that quality time, just getting to address your dissociative life?
• Where can you go to get your questions answered, or at least be heard and understood?
• Where can you go to sit in a room where being multiple is the NORM and not the unusual?
• Where can you go where all ages of your dissociative system have activities created, just for them?

This P4 Retreat is designed specifically, and only, for dissociative trauma survivors.   Every single activity will be presented with your system in mind.  What can your kids learn from this activity?  What can your host figure out during that activity?  What do you learn from the feedback given from others who see your multiplicity from an entirely different viewpoint?  Who else understands what life is like with DID than a room-filled of others who are also living with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder)?!  “Takes one to know one”, and that reality most certainly helped our Montana ’22 Retreat to be incredible.   

I have no doubt that NC ’23 will be even better yet!  

But that’s enough to hear from me.

Let me share what someone else thinks about the P4 Retreat experience:

“Hi there to anyone who is on the fence about attending the retreat.  I am here to tell you what my experience was like. 

Before attending the retreat in Montana, I had only ever met one person face to face with DID and that was only a few months before.  So going into the event I was quite nervous about what to expect.  Would I be, ok?  Would I get along with the others?  Would I know if they switched?  How would I handle that?  Is it rude to notice?  Is it rude to not notice?  What would it be like to be around other people that do switch?  What would it be like if I switched?  Is it safe to do that?  Would it be embarrassing to be seen as our different selves?  What if someone doesn’t like us? What if we don’t like one of them?  Would it be ok for the kids to be seen as kids?  And what about Kathy? Is she the same in person as she is online?  Would it be bad if I got triggered and had to step away?  Will I be able to handle my own stuff as it gets activated by discussions?  Would it be ok to cry?  Would it be ok if someone saw me cry?

SO MANY QUESTIONS!  This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure some of you have questions and doubts of your own.  That being the case I’d like to offer you this perspective.  The Montana retreat was truly life altering for us. Let me explain:

We have known we live with DID for about 15 years now.  WOW… that’s crazy in and of itself.  Of those 15 years we have been lucky enough to have been acquainted with Kathy for 13 of them.  Thank goodness for the blog, consultations and eventually, this forum.  Going to the retreat was like the culmination of a lot of hard work and a bit of luck to get us to this point.  Being able to experience others in person with their own processes, ideas, opinions, advice, input, and insights was very significant.  The people I’d been talking to for almost four years were real and alive and right there in the same place as me.  It was amazing from the first moment.  I felt so accepted and understood and free.

For the littles it was absolutely amazing.  One of our little guys had the time of his life!  He got to be himself and didn’t have to hide that he was a kid, didn’t have to hide that he was a boy in a girl’s body, didn’t have to hide that he was excited and nervous and happy all at once.  He got to be around other system kids and to know that he’s accepted and that people can be safe.  This was invaluable for all of us.  Feeling safe is so important and to have the littles experience real safety around other dissociative folks was so good for us. 

We felt less shame and less denial.  We felt like we were valued and what we said was important enough to not only be heard but responded to.  We came back with loads of topics for therapy that are helping us get to deeper levels of healing.  We were in a huge time of flux at that time.  Going to the retreat gave us strength to deal with that very difficult situation when we got back.  It was the perfect beginning to a new chapter in our lives.  The discussions were top notch, the presentations were engaging and informative, the games were fun, the artwork inspiring, the writing exercises revealing. 

BUT, most of all, the lasting relationships that were forged on the forum came to life in Montana and have since become so much stronger.  Having the experience of seeing people in their totality was amazing.  Seeing people at different stages in their healing was awe inspiring, particularly when I saw them catch on to something they hadn’t before or when they shared a story that was painful and received the support so needed.  It made me realize that what Kathy has built here is so unique and so powerful. 

I would encourage you, if you can manage it in any way, for any amount of time, try coming to the retreat.  Put your best brave face on and give it a shot.  You will not regret it.”

 

“LIFE ALTERING,” she said.

LIFE ALTERING.

LIFE ALTERING!

Wow.   That’s powerful set of words to hear in reference to our week in Montana. 

But, I agree.  I can’t not agree.  It really was an amazing week, and we had the best of times.

I will add this.  One of the reasons this Retreat Participant had such an amazing experience is that she and her insiders were already familiar and comfortable with most of the other Retreat Attendees, and her system had built relationships with these people through their participation in the DDCF DID Community Forum. 

Getting to know the other P4 Retreat attendees ahead of time is a key element, and our “secret sauce” ingredient for getting the most out of the retreat.   Having these relationships, connections, acquaintances, and familiarities ahead of time helps you to build trust, and gives you more time to do that.  It helps you to know who you are going to be with, and gives you insight about how other attendees will be, and who they are.  DDCF forum participation helps you to feel connected to the others even before stepping one foot into North Carolina.  It gives you a gentle, safer head start when connecting with other people is a particularly complicated task.

It’s not too late for you to   join DDCF   and to start building those relationships now.  Get to know the folks who will be in the Retreat Lodge.  Besides,  the DDCF forum members get heads up information first, long before anyone else.   DDCF forum members see additional pictures, get more scoop on how it really was, get to participate in decision-making, and offer suggestions for planning the next event. 

Join DDCF and talk to the people who know — don’t just listen to me. 

I had a great time at the P4 Retreat: MONTANA 2022 — I promise I did.  It really was a good time for everyone, and I’m not even DID!  Even House Mom genuinely enjoyed herself!  But you may need a multiple’s point of view.  At the forum, you can get thoughts and comments from all kinds of people, not just me.   

Three cheers for NC ’23 being three times better than Montana ’22! 

Hope to see you there!

Warmly, 

Kathy

P4DIDConference.com

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