A trauma victim can face many difficulties when trying to express everything that occurred in a traumatic event. They have to recount the trauma to numerous people that could include police, loved ones and a therapist. With every recollection of this trauma, the victim’s mind and body tries to adapt to circumstances beyond their control. [...]
In order for people to release their Self, they first need to know that it is there. The concept is a fairly simple one, though it can be a difficult one to grasp for someone who is a trauma victim. It is said that when someone asked Michelangelo how he created the David from a [...]
Everything can change once you successfully access your Self. Not only will you be able to relate better to the different parts that are within you, but you will also have the courage to better relate to the people around you as well. If you have yet to experience your Self, it just means that [...]
A trauma victim’s symptoms represent memories that their “parts” use to express survival responses. The victim continues to feel like they are not safe; as if something is happening to threaten their wellbeing immediately. This causes them to react in defense. This is a misinterpretation of the traumatic response and it only causes the fragmented [...]
Trauma typically will leave its mark in ways that do not fit traditional treatment methods. For example, it stands to reason that a victim would feel relieved when they tell their therapist everything that they have gone through. But instead, they often feel exposed or ashamed. What is considered “normal” therapy does not always work [...]
Over the last few months, we’ve been talking about the Self and the “parts,” which are separate from the Self, and more like individual personalities. Hopefully this is a concept you have come to understand and accept because it is so important during the healing process for trauma victims. Those “parts” can be anything – [...]
For many trauma victims, the concept that they have “parts” is entirely new to them. It never occurs to them that they might be fragmented, and it certainly never crosses their minds that there could be value in facing and empathizing with those “parts.” But the reality is that it can make such a huge [...]
When therapists first began treating trauma victims, they heavily relied on a therapeutic tool that is has been the most accepted practice in psychotherapy – talk therapy. In her book, Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors, Janina Fisher refers to this as the “talking cure.” It is a method that allowed therapists to address [...]
A lot of people do not seek trauma therapy until they have been flooded with responses and memories from their “parts.” If you remember correctly, the “parts” are what often happens when people develop depersonalization, chronic depression or other symptoms. This is often falsely diagnosed as dissociative identity disorder, but the presence of certain symptoms [...]
We’ve been discussing the internal family systems model of treating trauma. We’ve discussed the “self” and the various internal parts of ourselves and how they relate to each other. There is a fragmentation that occurs within trauma victims, and that fragmentation drives the way they relate to other people, the world and themselves. Therapy involves [...]