karebear, BTW, my kids and I always liked the Care Bears and we used to have many of them and the books. This was years ago but I think they are back again!

Thanks for your post. Yes, I feel proud that I did some work on my own this week, thanks to posting here, and I feel better. My T told me that the real healing will come when I feel compassion for my parts, and that's what I am starting to do. I think last session was a mini breakthrough of some sort. I let my T see my feelings as they were happening! It did bring up some uncomfortable feelings that I need to discuss, but I feel relieved that it did. I emailed her earlier about how ashamed I was, but now I don't feel that way. I don't think the shame disappeared, but it's a start. I probably will want to hide in therapy, but knowing we're finger painting is something to look forward to. Maybe I can talk while I'm doing it; it will be relaxing.

Wow! Therapy can take strange directions!