Posted by Aphrodite on August 1, 2004, at 16:01:52
In reply to Being treated for a dissociative disorder, posted by Pfinstegg on July 28, 2004, at 18:16:49
Your post really resonated with me. Thank you for sharing your moving and poignant story. Your T sounds wonderful. I am especially impressed with how he talks to your younger parts. I completely relate with your description of the children wanting to attach and immediately recoiling at the same time.
I've always had the different voices arguing in my head and heart, and so if one good thing has come from my therapy, it is that this makes sense to me now. I also do not have DID, but I am consciously aware of about 5 ego states that clammor for therapist's attention. Mostly there is the accomodating, functional, and diplomatic adult everyone knows as "Aphrodite," and there is a darker, cynical adult that speaks and thinks very much like my father. There is an isolated and withdrawing teenager who doesn't like conflict and wants to be alone after all the terrible things that happened to her. There is a younger, very wounded child who still has hope and optimism and who wants the interaction with my T the most. And the fifth is a very hidden authentic me, the person the cheerful child may have become if all the abuse and neglect did not get in the way. She is very silent.
I read a technique once in preparing for my EMDR sessions. It's imagining inviting all the different ego states to a conference table and hearing all the objections to therapy, to one another, and trying to reach a consensus. That image works well for me since I often facilitate meetings through in my work life. I can really visualize and "hear" all of these parts of me, and it's less like a million voices in the head -- it's much more organized.
The trick is getting the cynic on board who leaves every therapy session determined to quit.
Thanks for your post and the opportunity to discuss this. It's all so new to me.
poster:Aphrodite
thread:371785
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040728/msgs/372918.html