I was talking to my T about how my youngest alter (maybe 5 years old) has a difficult time with flashbacks because she thinks everything is still happening. My T suggested that we explain to her that it is 2014, and ground her to the present. I explained that this doesn't help, because she is aware of present day happenings as well. When she talks about things that happened in the past, it's always like it was yesterday that it happened. In the same sentence she can talk about things we actually did yesterday and things we did 20 years ago as if it was yesterday.

My T seemed surprised by this, when he realized she doesn't have any concept of time.

When I need to ground her, it means I have to show her that the stuff that happened years ago is not happening anymore, and prove that it's over in a way that doesn't use time. For example, we don't live in that town anymore, so we can't be in the same room that it was happening, or other differences, like ages, deaths, etc.

Has anyone else had to explain to an alter the concept of time? How would you do this with a small child?

TIA
IJ