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...]
25 More Ways to Avoid Self-Injury and Prevent Self-Harm
. This blog is a continuation of the initial article posted on December 31, 2008, "25 Ways to Avoid Self-Injury and Prevent Self-Harm." If you are feeling pressured to get past the "heat of the moment" and you need some ideas of how to do this safely, try using a handful of the following ideas. These ideas will not help solve your self-injury issue on a long-term basis, but they could help you to get … [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...]
Creating Internal System Scrapbooks
A fun and creative way to increase system communication and overall system familiarity is to make a scrapbook displaying pages that describe each of the people in your system. Getting to know your system is an absolute essential part to your healing and recovery, but doing system work doesn't have to be drudgery. A system scrapbook can be a wonderful treasure and a priceless keepsake for many years to come. It can … [Read more...]
10 Qualities a Therapist Recognizes in a Good Client, part 1
Most clients quickly think of the many qualities they want in their therapists. However, are those clients also thinking about whether or not they are presenting themselves as the type of client someone would want to work with? As an experienced psychotherapist, I am proposing that there are many criteria for clients to consider about themselves as well as about their prospective therapists. Many of the … [Read more...]