Quote:
Originally Posted by rainbow8
My T does IFS, which is similar to schema therapy. We isolate the parts of my personality and have talked to the child parts often. The goal is for ME to reparent those needy parts by myself, and that starts by having compassion for them. It also includes reparenting by my T, because she is there with the child parts too.
Holding hands is a type of reparenting because my T says she is changing my nervous system to give me what I never had. I think of it as refueling my gas tank with a more calming kind of fuel than my mother gave me. I think it is working. It is NOT reparenting therapy, though. The most extreme reparenting I read about years ago was when Ts actually gave clients baby bottles! I have no idea if that strategy was ever successful, but it sets off many red flags to me!
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The bottle feeding you mention wasn't that unusual as a part of reparenting therapy and was extremely controversial. Regression is encouraged and in even weirder cases therapists held clients to their chests to mimic the bonding/attachment in nursing. This style doesn't resonate well with me because I feel like it infantilizes people and takes away their dignity. I know this extreme isn't what you're all talking about but is how it originated )combined with something called transactional analysis). I have heard some of this attachment parenting still done with children and it is very controversial.
Like Nowhere, I accept my past for what it is and see myself as he sum of my experiences. The bonding I missed out on is not going to be recreated now, I just want to build off of what I have. If it's your thing and you feel it works then there's no harm, but I would be aware of the the power differential in the relationship and take care not to let a T get too caught up in their parental role.