The goal is for the Self to lead the parts. I'm not talking about DID. These are parts we all have, like a part who may want to eat healthy and exercise every day, vs a part who does emotional eating and doesn't want to exercise. It doesn't necessarily mean child parts. Or, a part who is ashamed of another part. I'll ask my T again because I was surprised too. I'm pretty sure she said something like "we're not trying to get rid of your child parts. They're special. We just want them to do what children like to do, and that's to play. So when my child part likes to play in the sand, that's good! She's a part of me who is healthy.

Like I posted above, I think that's what my T said. It doesn't seem to make complete sense, though. Have they grown? I'll have to ask my T because now I'm confused. I think the baby and child parts who always wanted my T to be there for them can now accept MY being there for them to some extent. I think my T said we want to unburden them or shift the burden or something like that. The baby part doesn't think about T holding her all the time. It came up again now, but for a long time, like over a year, that urge hasn't come up. The urge for little parts to climb into her lap hasn't been there much, either. I think the parts grew to adolescents, or rather, those young parts are okay but the adolescent parts have been needing attention for some months now, and we are working with those.

When we do SE, there's not as much dealing with the parts, but I will try to remember to ask my T about the child parts again, as now you've got me curious!