Great question and answers on this thread!

For us, we had total separation of parts for many years. Typical DID symptoms and such. But with excellent support from our T since July last year, we are now able to talk with all parts inside and even allow them to be able to talk with T while I stayed aware (most of the time) of what is being said.

It is so totally not easy to do.... ugg
It takes a tramendous amount of energy most of the time to do that.
But it really has helped by starting off with T and allowing him to call out the alters and speak with them. Now the young ones do not have a clue as to what year it is - but they don't care either. Typical for that age. But they know T is safe and they can come out and tell him what they think about stuff we are dealing with from the past.

Now with anger alter Mick, she is still having a very hard time with being able to maintain a HERE/NOW stance. In fact, with as far along as we have come, just yesterday while in session, Mick was lost when T asked her to come out and she thought the year was 1985 - the year I was 15 and she was "solidified". T was going to do the talking to pull her back because she was in flashback mode and ready to run and not sure where she was... but I am now strong enough to do this myself and conscious enough as well.

So I kept asking her who she saw infront of her - at first she had no clue. And what year it was? Finally she started to come back around and got the answers right. It took about 5 min of T time to do this, but we did it and that made me feel better to know I am getting strong enough to pull the most damaged part of me back to a safe state of mind.

The way our T is having us get the "parts" unburdened is by actually treating them as individuals when he talks with us. He gives them respect. He asks them what they think. Even when they come out now for the first time in a session, they will tell him Hi and he acknowledges them as though it is the first time he saw us that day.

Keep up the excellent work!