“The development of an incipient careseeking/caregiving system involves moving from avoidance to intra-subjectivity. This can be very anxiety-provoking. One person described it as a 'crisis of attachment '. Any past internal relating is likely to have been highly ambivalent at best. This is my face and which internal beliefs, such as being unworthy of care, which were formed in identification with the perpetrator, are challenged. The little creature [a hidden dissociated part of the self] may perceive both caregiving and careseeking as dangerous. He or she may fear being vulnerable to further abuse or exploitation and 'flinches, expecting pain again '.”
Source: Attachment, Trauma and Multiplicity: Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder
“This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression - and with all this yet to die.”
Source: The Denial of Death
“The external therapeutic relationship remains a template for the kind of supportive companionable relating it needed internally. At the same time, this stage facilitates the role of the therapist as a consultant to the system [person with dissociative identity disorder].”
Source: Attachment, Trauma and Multiplicity: Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder
“The patient does not make light of manifestations of herself anymore, does not so often laugh or jeer at them, even if she still unconsciously passes them over or ignores them, even in the subtle way her parents dealt with the child before she had words to express her needs.”
Source: Drama of Being a Child Book Club
“All parts need to be honoured for their role in survival and re-framed as helpful before new coping strategies can be developed. The ability to internalise the relationship with the therapist as a caregiver is key to the individuals ability to provide for self-care and management.”
Source: Attachment, Trauma and Multiplicity: Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder
“i thought healing
would feel like forgetting
like erasing your name
from every corner of my mind
there were days
when your ghost sat beside me
and i almost let it stay
but healing is learning to live
without inviting the past to the table”
Source: Prisoner
“I’ve learned that regardless of what someone else’s response to a situation is, it doesn’t have to dictate my ability to heal. Whether or not it does…is my choice.”
Source: Jesus and Therapy: Bridging the Gap Between Faith and Mental Health
“Jesus is not at war with mental health professionals. You can walk hand in hand with both Jesus and a therapist. In fact, you are doing the bravest thing of all by allowing someone in who can walk you through the hard things. We were never meant to go on this journey alone.”
Source: Jesus and Therapy: Bridging the Gap Between Faith and Mental Health
“Let love lace
Our lives with grace
As we retrace steps
Without regrets.”
Source: Where Written Words Remain: Route to My Soul
“Sometimes,
There is a silent raging,
A wounded child in us
That needs to heal,
Not by time,
But by love that could hold
The soul to be still—
Only love.”
Source: Where Written Words Remain: Route to My Soul