I am still amazed by the excellent group discussion and active participation that was generated by my last blog post. Considering that one of the main purposes of this blog is to “discuss dissociation”, I think that’s good! Thank YOU for your active interest. I genuinely appreciate that. I have been contemplating a number of different follow up topics after such an intense discussion. … [Read more...]
HBO’s “In Treatment” – Is That What Therapy is Like?
How many of you have been watching the award-winning HBO Series, "In Treatment" with Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, and John Mahoney? This HBO series is currently near the beginning of its second season, centered around how Dr. Paul Weston (Byrne) conducts therapy sessions with four different clients, and then his own individual therapy process with his own therapist, Dr. Gina Toll (Wiest). In my opinion, the "In … [Read more...]
Thinking Ahead — Preparation for Working with your Child Parts
As I continue to write posts about working with child parts, I want to encourage you to think about this topic as well. Read the following questions, and be honest with yourself – think about them. Journal about them, and make these questions the topics of discussion in your internal meetings. Try the acronym exercises if you need a starting place. What are your beliefs about child parts? Who are they? … [Read more...]
Using the Internal Landscape to Increase Internal Communication
Trauma survivors with Dissociative Identity Disorder have an internal world – an internal landscape that is visible, tangible, and very real for the different internal parts. No one on the outside can see this internal world – it is within the mind of the DID person and it belongs totally and completely to them. Many times, this internal landscape is an internalized replica of what happened in the outside … [Read more...]
Lists of 100 Reasons
This is an excellent journaling exercise that can be adapted to any topic at any time. The entirety of the exercise is to find a difficult or complicated topic. Ask yourself a question about that topic and then write out 100 responses to that question. For lots of people, one hundred sounds like a huge number for a writing exercise, but once you start thinking about the issue in smaller increments, you might be … [Read more...]