Pocast 3

We welcome Dr. Richard Chefetz to the podcast! He shares his perspective of the dissociative processes, and how they relate to associative processes. He explains his terminology of “self states” and normalized them as part of the human experience. He also explains assimilation and accommodation, and what these have to do with trauma. He also talks about how he uses hypnosis in his practice, and explains what that it like for those who want to know.

Sasha and Dr. E read and respond to listener emails.

Dr. E gives an update as we continue traveling, providing trauma trainings near disaster sites. She shares how we have tried to care for ourselves on this difficult trip so far away from home for so long. She shares more about what she has done on the trip, and our goal to help protect children around the world. She shares about the different listeners around the world, just to remind each one that we are not alone as we have each other.

We welcome Dr. Cathy Kezelman, President of Australia’s Blue Knot Foundation National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma. She shares about the Blue Knot Foundation, and tells us the story of her own journey from survivor to advocate. She announces the release of the 2019 Practice Guidelines for Clinical Treatment of Complex Trauma, which will be explores further in a future interview with the co-author of the guidelines. This episode has a trigger warning for reference to suicidal ideation, but no direct experiences or specific trauma details are disclosed. Links available in the blog post for this guest episode.

Dr. E shares about psychological first aid. She defines psychosocial support and gives examples. She uses the information often applied to natural disaster response to explain how the same principles apply to an internal system. She defines trauma and explored adaptive coping skills.

We share our experiences facing the fire at a women’s retreat the last weekend of October. We share what we learned about staying present with the pain of the past and each other. We talked about the importance of connection to safe people, and what that looked like for us this weekend.

Lost Episode

Emma shares what she is learning about friendship. She shares about learning to trust and practicing engaging with friends instead of hiding. She shares that she is learning about gaslighting. She talks about what it means to her, to have come too far to only come this far. She explains how it’s true that you always have a choice. Molly reads a quote from the book “Anam Cara” that reflects both the inner world concept as well as what we are learning about friendship. Trigger warning for mention of the musical “Wicked” but only in context of reference to a song.

We answer more emails, including some tangents. We talk about online groups. We talk about boundaries for your system with other systems. We talk about the challenges of participating in groups. We also talk about navigating friendships and relationships online. We announce news about upcoming guidelines. We share an apology shared from another member of an online group.

We share emails as the closing remarks in response to the structural dissociation discussion.

We share about the therapist challenging us with the question: what is safe? We share our friend’s answer and discuss what we learned. We share different alters’ ideas about when we feel safe. An argument between Kassi and JohnMark is shared. Some experiences are mentioned in passing only, including foster care and the death of parents, but neither are discussed at length.

Sasha talks about how hard therapy can be, even when it’s good. We talk about the workbook chapter that discussed Triggers, and share an example for the workbook homework. Due to the nature of the chapter content, there is reference to flashbacks and memory work and triggers. While no abuse memories are disclosed, there is reference to foster care and reference to a house fire and reference to church and the death of parents and the abuse dynamic.

Emma shares about a difficult session in therapy. She faces her past, that DID developed because of trauma. She talks about learning to get to know the others, rather than just information about them. There are ducks and geese in the background, and she is interrupted by a tornado siren (we are safe).

Lost Episode

We share about a difficult morning of parenting, and what it’s like to have so many with so much trauma in one house. The husband teaches the children about trauma and triggers, and processes with them the morning our family experienced. We talk about the difference between big feelings and actually being in danger. Some examples of domestic violence and abuse are mentioned in context of the discussion, as well as some discussion about the police and foster care.

Dr. E and Sasha read emails in response to the recent episodes about structural dissociation. Listeners share what was helpful for them with other trauma disorders besides DID. We also share the support received after our recent struggles with difficult therapy sessions.

Sasha checks the post office box and shares the unboxing. Then she works with Dr. E to process an email from our friend in response to the recent discussion about structural dissociation theory. Links mentioned in the podcast are available on the blog.

The Stronghold System joins us as a guest to discuss the structural dissociation theory. They clarify the components that were borrowed for the model, rather than invented in this model, and gives credit to the original authors of ANP and EP classification, "parts" terminology, and the continuum of integration (rather than it being a continuum of dissociation). They discuss culture and community, and what can be learned from the disability, autism, and LGBT communities. Trigger warning for mention of abuse (no disclosures) and discussion of integration (in context of treatment options, including functional multiplicity). These issues are discussed further in the next episode.

Dr. E reviews the theory of structural dissociation to explain the commonly discussed aspects. Then she explains an article released last week by the Stronghold System, which called out the theory for ableism. She discusses why this matters, and why clinicians need to understand the perspective even if they disagree with it. She shares that the next episode following will be an interview with the Stronghold System about this article. Please also see the follow-up episode after that, "Clinical Response".

Dr. E comes full circle in chatting with Kathy Steele. Kathy shares how she learned about dissociation and how that led to the Coping Skills workbook. She explains the structural theory of dissociation. Dr. E discussed her experiences of wrestling with some of these ideas, as well as some of the unfolding community and cultural implications for survivors and clinicians alike.

Sasha answers emails! She discusses emotional flashbacks and internal communication. She discusses opening up about DID, the coming out process, and friendship.

Dr. E speaks with Christine Forner, the current president of the ISSTD. Christine shares her own trauma journey to healing, and opens up about what that was like professionally. She explains her clinical perspective of trauma and dissociation and what healing looks like from her own perspective. She discusses her goals for her presidency, as well as upcoming ISSTD projects related to survivors and updated treatment guidelines. Domestic violence and trafficking and other “genres” of abuse are referenced, but nothing is disclosed or discussed in detail.

We give an update since the last episode, understanding that Now Time is still safe and our friends are still there even though we came home from our good weekend. We talk about some of the triggers in leaving, and recognize there is grief from the system as a whole realizing the parents are really dead. We process briefly what we are doing to care for ourselves and for our outside children, including rescuing a climber who went too high.

I miss my friends. Leaving feels like foster care. Our parents are dead. I have big feelings of it.

Lost Episode

We explain how going back to school was a hard week of transition for the outside children. We share the story of going back to the place where we grew up, and how we navigated some of those triggers. We share about a women’s conference we attended to learn about friendship. Trigger warning for reference to God and some discussion about abuse by church leaders, but no specific abuse disclosures are made or discussed.

Rachel Lewis-Marlow is a somatically integrative psychotherapist and shares with us about the importance of connecting to our bodies. She explains about the different ways different systems are organized, and different ways facilitating change. She explains how this “language of sensation and movement” applies to preverbal and nonverbal memory work, to eating disorders specifically, as well as to dissociation. She defines embodiment, so as to define dissociation as disembodiment.

Emma shares about being back in therapy since school started. She explains what it is like learning the feelings of when she is about to switch or when there is a trigger. She shares what the therapist taught about how she can learn over time to function without DID, but why that doesn’t make anyone go away. She shares about her progress with decreased anxiety, as well as what she is learning about friendship.

Neil Brick from SMART News is a guest, and explains about resources for ritual abuse survivors. While no abuse disclosures or graphic details are given, there is a heavy trigger warning for this episode due to the nature of the content itself. He explains what ritual abuse is, and discussed the different forms and environment in which it occurs. He shares about an upcoming conference for which survivors can get free registration. His website is HERE and you can find out more about the ritual abuse conference HERE.