interesting idea..

being attached to someone in the present and then during therapy take your attachment feelings out of you and move them on to your therapist for discussion and taking care of them...

if I do this and know its this why not take care of the attachment issues with the person I am attached to. If I am attached to them to this degree then I have total trust in them to care about me and take care of me and do things for me so I wouldnt have any concerns or fears with discussing my attachment to them with them.

Thought provolking....LOL

I do trust my therapist, she's a great person (and I'm not just saying that because she knows about this site and can read my posts any time she want's) She's very active in survivors rights in this community, runs a very successful depression management group, in fact I am in the process of helping a friend connect with her and attend this group. I have as much trust in this therapist as I do any of my past 19 therapists (and more than some of them) It isn't a matter of attachment and trust that I do my therapy stuff on my own. Its the type of program that I am on.

When I recieved my past therapist and she found out I had been tested and came up DID we went to my lawyer on my DHS case. My lawyer told us not to disclose my actual diagnosis. Just work on it. (my present lawyer is not hiding that I have this and its one more worry about this case off my mind)

So under the disguise of PTSD we researched Dissociative Identity Disorder and contacted professionals in the field here and across the country and with their imput, our research and throwing together plans of our own we implimented a 24/7 therapy program to take care of my DID that I could do 98% on my own this way I didn't need to leave the state to enter the DID therapy facility that I needed, which would also have given away to DHS that I have this and grounds for losing my son (if I had left the state then the caseworker would have filed abandonment charges which happens when a child is in foster care and the parent leaves the state without court permission)

My therapy program includes journaling, drawing, poetry, arts and crafts, workbook exercises like Laura Davis's Courage To HealText and workbook, Amongst Ourselves workbook, The PTSD workbook, Depression workbook, Nancy J Napier's Conscious living exercises and so on, relaxation techniques and grounding exercises, parenting classes, anger management classes, depression management classes, support groups both in real life and on line, stimulating all five senses at once with various activities such as cooking and paying attention to textures, smells, looks, playing with play dough, taking a walk and writing down all that I see, hear, and so on. locating and knowing my triggers and acitvely using relaxation, grounding techniques to remain aware, memory recall work.

I can do and keep logs on these things on my own. I set goals for myself and meet those goals. I come up with projects to do and complete those projects.

My therapist knows what I am doing so that if I come up to a wall in my plans she can help.

This plan works so well for me that I was told by my past therapist and my present one the things I am doing has advanced my control over my DID about 10 years in a three year time period. And my present therapist has given me the option of seeing her once in 4-5 weeks.

( I am chosing to see her twice a month because I have a project going that will knock down a nightly nightmare and open up new memories so that some more triggers can be located and taken care of so that I have even more control over what triggers me into dissociating. This plan is one of my odd spur of the moment ones and in my therapist words when I first told her almost 2 years ago that I had developed this plan but havent put it in place yet due to having to switch therapists "that's ******ng Brilliant" is what I call "use dissociation to fix dissociation" She is now caught up to where my past therapist and I am in my therapy program and is ready so we are starting to put the finishing touches (call it dress rehersal if you want) on this plan of mine and then it's a go. And for this part in my plan you might say she is a key factor and has the lead in the actual play so to speak of this plan)

The trick behind my therapy plan is most DID therapy programs work one type of therapy at a time by addressing one issue at a time where as my plan took all my symptoms - depression, anger, parenting, losing time, memory pieces (alters), self injury you name it ...my past therapist and I had put things in place for it all and was working on them all - all at once.

Do I recommend doing this - depends on the person. This type of plan takes total commitment. From the moment of waking up to how to fall asleep is some sort of therapy going on and into the night for example waking from a nightmare or flashback being committed to grabbing that journal logging in the nightmare and actively using the therapy program to regain control over the panic phase. and wake up the next morning doing the program all over again. Its repetative but definately not boring. Challenging and stressful at times. On this plan a person really needs to be able to find humor in every situation possible or it will bury them alive.

Yes I agree therapy is a good thing in fact great but a therapist can't be with me 24/7 keeping me from cutting, keeping me from being triggered into memory pieces, pulling me out of panic attacks, holding me when I need to be wrapped up and held and so on.

even with a therapist I am the one that has to do the work and be committed to doing the work during therapy time and actively using outside of therapy time what is learned during therapy time.

The way I see my therapist, and sessions is like seeing my medical physician. I have health problems. my doctor can prescribe the meds and explain to me what needs to be done but I am the one that has to stick to the diet plans and medication plans to keep the medical problem under control. These medical problems are not going to go away so I need to take care of them not for short term but forever 24/7.The same with my mental health. the problems are there and its my resposibility to take care of them not short term but for forever 24/7.

Thanks again for the thought provoking reply I love it.