Mother’s Day. Mother's Day is a hard day for a lot of dissociative trauma survivors. It’s a day full of mixed emotions, painful longings, unhealed heartbreak. It's so complicated, especially when you think about how important mothers are to their children, and what their behavior teaches their children. Mother's Day hurts the people who were hurt so much by their mothers. Mothers are a complicated subject, … [Read more...]
Not Getting to Be Your True Self – But Whose Life is it Anyway?
Do you get to be your real self? I’ve been wondering what else I could teach about Dissociative Identity Disorder, using an episode of United States of Tara as the example. Then I remembered the last minute of a show about Buck and his emotional pain. And I thought more of how very painful and how very real that heartbreak is for Buck. Throughout this season two, Tara has struggled with the fact … [Read more...]
Do You Need Faith to Overcome the Effects of Trauma?
FAITH ??! Do you need faith to overcome the negative effects of trauma? Faith? Isn't that a religious or spiritual term, Kathy? Don’t worry – I’m not a preacher – I’m not going to preach at you. But I do believe in a thing called faith. I do believe there is goodness and light in the world. And I believe there is evil and darkness in the world. There can be many complex, complicated … [Read more...]
United States of Tara is Integrated Now? Really?
So here we go again. The second season of the Showtime series "United States of Tara" starring the Emmy Award winner Toni Collette has begun. The first season was full of controversial episodes, and most of the survivor population with dissociative identity disorder was disappointed and angered by the series. Even though some of the best-known trauma psychiatrists were allegedly acting as advisors for the show, … [Read more...]
The Layers of Halloween Weekend
It’s Halloween weekend. This is a difficult, heavy weekend for a lot of dissociative trauma survivors. I’ll say right upfront – and please hear this clearly -- that it is NOT a difficult or triggery weekend for every DID trauma survivor. To assume that every dissociative survivor has experienced the same kinds of abuse is completely wrong, and I will be the first trauma therapist to say that not everyone … [Read more...]