Thank you for reading through this series -- I hope it has given you something to think about in terms of your own strengths and abilities. This post lists the final column of the 1994 Many Voices publication from one of my outpatient group exercises based on Kathleen Adams MA book, Journal To the Self. The group was clearly getting more comfortable with sharing their answers, and as you will see, there are a … [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...]
Picturing the Healing Process for Dissociative Identity Disorder
This set of picture-postcards demonstrates a passage through time for a trauma survivor with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID / MPD). These pictures show different phases of the dissociative healing process, and illustrate how healing occurs. Notice that they move from a more shattered, painful, chaotic place to a calmer, structured, organized place. Where there is originally nothing but a fragmented … [Read more...]
Being Hated, Feeling Hated, Overcoming Self-Hatred
Practically every dissociative trauma survivor that I have spoken to has said to me that at some point in time or another, they have felt hated, truly hated. What's worse, they didn't feel hated by strangers -- they felt hated by their loved ones. These trauma survivors felt hated by their mothers, their fathers, their siblings, their spouses, their children, their friends. They felt hatred from the … [Read more...]
Cats and Dogs and Trauma Survivors
Pets are very important to trauma survivors for a variety of reasons: A place to express love, affection, and tenderness Many abuse survivors have difficulties with attachment issues due their extensive histories of trauma, abuse, and neglect. Because people were the perpetrators, trauma survivors frequently find it difficult and complicated to express caring and affection to other people. And yet, … [Read more...]