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When I think of this topic, the song lyrics, “Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You…”, by Oscar Hammerstein, comes to mind. In this instance however, the lyrics change to, “Getting to know me, getting to know all about me…” . The popular song’s attitude is warm, open and very friendly. Hopefully, some of the tools presented here will help counselors assist their clients to develop a similar attitude as they make the difficult decision to deliberately meet, know and accept all of themselves. There are several modalities of interventions which prove efficacious in helping a Dissociative Identity Disordered (DID) person.

As we know, simply adjusting to the idea of being broken into pieces of personality can be shocking and is quite difficult for our clients. We have a responsibility to make this adjustment as smooth as possible. Offering them tools which can be used at home and speed the healing process will be very appreciated and offer a sense of self control over their lives. What they retrieve from the counseling sessions can greatly facilitate the actual sessions.

DID counseling can be a lengthy process. A client who had experienced ritual abuse arrived for the counseling appointment and announced, “ I would have had to have lived several lives in order to experience involvement in as many rituals as are surfacing.” It would seem that a person with thousands of alters would need several lifetimes in order to process all the trauma in therapy. We will soon briefly discuss why this happens.

3dconscious

The actual type of interventions, models and tools used in the counseling can make a big difference in the length of the healing journey. The Holy Spirit-led type of counseling used at A.C.A.C.I.A. seems to expedite the healing process of complete integration for many compared to the usual length of secular therapy which is estimated to take about ten years. The discovery of yet more alters is not only discouraging to the client but to the therapist or prayer counselor as well.

I think it is vital for us to realize that the more alters one finds is an indicator of the extent of the abuse:

  1. It could reflect the actual number of times the person has been subjected to abuse and perceived abuse.
  2.  It could also reflect the type of abuse.
  • Foundational
    1. First actual event of its kind in a person’s life.
    2. Usually involves primary family members
  • Technologically induced
    1. It has been known in our circles for some time that the components of our society who are clinically traumatizing the world’s children for purposes of mind control have at their disposal advanced technology. For instance, some reports of memories of clients sound very much like wearing headphones and watching virtual reality television.
    2. Of course there was also pharmacological enhancement for the event. But the point is, the general public had no access to virtual reality technology at the time of the abuse. This is a clue for the counselor!
  •  Spiritually induced
    1. There are rare exceptions of dissociative persons who are not afflicted by introjects. This is the psychological term for demons in my opinion. Psychology does not seem to know what “it” is exactly but does at least give it a name. I write it this way to allow for it as an absolutely remote possibility.I once attended a conference on DID where a clinician and patient presented a talk. The patient reported that progress has been slow until she discovered the introjects. Once she started to deal with them the therapy seemed to take on great speed. The clinician was able to convince the patient that the introjects were not real. Since that time the therapy has continued into many years with a very depressed client.
    2. If the counselor is not equipped to manage the spiritual aspects of a DID client, it is imperative that a person with these skills be included in the healing team.

Hypnosis is a common aid for abusers for confusing the mind of the victims as well. Instead of the event happening only once, it may be “suggested” that it happened many times, hence more alters needed to be created to sustain the trauma. The use of virtual reality can implant the idea that something has happened to the person when in actuality, it was only viewed on a screen. The key for the counselor in this situation is that the trauma sustained from only viewing would need to be built upon at least one true physical experience similar to the viewed trauma.

It is usually foundational. Focus your work upon the foundational trauma and the other ones built upon it will quickly collapse if the belief systems derived from the original trauma are the same. If any in the same category seem to remain, look for a different belief resultant of the trauma.

A.C.A.C.I.A strongly opposes use of hypnosis for treatment of abuse. First of all, it is addressed in Deuteronomy 18:10 as “casting a spell” which is an abomination unto the Lord. If that were not enough, victims are familiar with its use against them and trust in the counselor could be compromised with its use. Actually, many clients already self-hypnotize. Observe for it and note its form. God knows every detail of their lives and is able to bring the memory forth when He knows the client is ready rather than raping the mind as hypnosis does.

Dr. Tom Hawkins was the first person I know to use the term “Primary Identities” in relationship to DID. The beauty of thePrimary Identities Model is its streamlining of otherwise overwhelming numbers of selves needing to be found and healed.

The following is a very simplified description of the model. Essentially, there are usually three aspects of the dissociative person, although there could be a few more. They are Denial, Pain, and Confusion. These aspects of the person are activated or reside if you will, in the frontal lobe of the brain. Other alters who are holding trauma are usually found in the occipital area of the brain. You may remember a client actually complaining of pain or discomfort in either of these areas of their heads at times. Current brain scanning technology can actually visualize an alter’s activation.

Denial represents all the aspects of the personality who want to deny the abuse or have an investment in keeping the original self in denial of the abuse.

Pain represents all the aspects of the personality who are in pain and have suffered the abuse.

Poor old Confusion is caught in the middle not knowing exactly what to believe. There may be many other reflections of Confusion in the system/s also. The Primary Identity Model prefers to conduct therapy or counsel with only these aspects of the person rather than 6 or 10,000 parts of a person. The primary parts can do the work on behalf of the others, so to speak. This is a great model. But like many tools and models, it does not work for everyone or at least all the times for a person. One of the greatest barriers to this model lies in the function of the protector alters.

We will focus on Protectors in March 2010. If you are interested, you can obtain from our store, Dr. Hawkins’s excellent address of Primary Identities in the CD’s or DVD’s entitled, Primary Identities and Desynchronization and Overcoming Dissociation with Primary Dynamics.

There are several modalities of interventions which prove efficacious in helping a Dissociative Identity Disordered (DID) person. In the last decade, we did a lot of system mapping of alters. This proved very helpful for many. Of course, when the map alters were so numerous that the size of the map seemed to go on and on and on, it could be very discouraging to the client. Mapping can still be useful. It is especially helpful to show the relationships of the alters to each other and the degree of functionality and power they have in their system. Mapping can visualize their internal world/s. For instance, one client’s map demonstrated a range, a well, a house of ill repute, and a city slum as different landscapes and places of residence for her alters. The exercise often reveals what previously were amnesic aspects of the person. An alter is illustrated, and for the first time, the host is aware of their existence. Of course the co-conscious aspects of the person are shown.

Journaling is a valuable aid. I encourage clients to get an economical notebook and to divide it into sections. They are encouraged to schedule 15-20 minutes three to four times a week of totally uninterrupted time. They get comfortable with their journal and after inviting Holy Spirit, the Wonderful Counselor, to protect and direct them, they ask if anyone inside would like to talk. There are times when nothing happens. As trust is built with the host/s and those inside, more dialogue ensues. Actually there may be need to draw straws etc. to decide who gets the turn to speak. It is helpful to enter the conversation with alter A in it’s area of the journal and alter B’s in it’s area for ease of understanding and to avoid confusion over alters with the same names. My clients often send their recent journal entries to me prior to our next session. I can see what they have already accomplished and also what we may need to supplement.

A word of concerned caution is good for the client. Advise them not to enter into a conversation which any of them feels is dangerous. I like to tell them, “You often had to suffer alone while being abused, you do not have to be alone while healing from the abuse.” The client can just advise the alter of the importance of the topic and that it needs to wait for discussion until the next counseling session for maximum safety. This builds trust within the system/s. We pray and ask Jesus to be a barrier of the feelings and to hold the memory until it is safe to talk about it. He does.

Collages can be very therapeutic. As clients browse through magazines, they find pictures which remind them of some of their parts. They cut them out and soon an array of many of their personality are looking back at them. This is another way of introducing one part to another. Again, often amnesic ones are surfaced in this exercise.

Depending upon the person, the arts can be extremely revealing. Be sure to use them in your sessions and to encourage your clients to do the same.

One dear client really took to heart the strategy of knowing and respecting her parts. She would take walks purposing to dialogue with certain alters. She took baggies along. A small boy alter may like bugs or certain rocks. She would gather the bugs and rocks into the baggie and label it with the alters name and gathered information. If he had no name, she would suggest one until it were acceptable to the alter. For another, she may find a feather or leaf for the baggie and be sure to have an ice cream cone which was the favorite flavor of that particular alter.

Another helpful tool is to draw lines on a paper and label categories at the top. As an alter is met, the following is documented. This is an invaluable tool for the counselor too.

  • Name
  • Age of body at alter’s birthing
  • Type of abuse/s
  • If they claimed Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord
  • Name of their buddy [client formed a buddy system of help inside]

Sometimes there are multiple same names. This could be the same alter who only performed the same function at different ages or different alters altogether.

Since we are all wonderfully radically unique individuals, the tools and models will need to be sampled to find the best match for the person for greatest efficacy.

Over the years, certain situations in life have had great significance for my clients. I am currently writing a notebook which focuses on these common situations. It was birthed from the genuine disappointment in client’s faces and voices and my deep regret that I do not having anything to offer them to take away for help at home. As soon as it is published, it will be available at our store. It is designed for ease of reading for the children inside, as well as for adults. I hope that you will be pleased.