Hmm, yeah, I have thoughts on this - not sure if I can articulate them.

A few years ago I experienced several incidents of abuse in which I was coconscious with the child alters that dealt with them, but utterly unable to change anything. During the incidents I was completely 'stuck' in the child states, even though I was fully aware of them as they happened. Not good.

So... afterwards I was trying to figure out WHY this happened, why the adults me's weren't able to step up and alter the situation. After much internal dioalogue etc we figured out that the child parts didn't KNOW things could be changed - they were stuck in their old roles of 'just doing what they had to do to get through it' and did not know that anything could be dealt with differently to previous abusive experiences. So they survived it as best they could, and - even though we were coconscious -they 'protected' us by blocking us from being out. Essentially they were just doing their job.

Changing things was based on teaching the younger parts that they could rely on US for help. During childhood there was no-one there and they had to rely on themselves... but that isn't so anymore. They have us. They protected us for so long, and now it is our job to protect them.

So, essentially, communication was the key. Teaching the younger ones that we are bigger and more powerful now, and helping them to trust that WE can can take of issues together.

Sorry - my words have stopped.
HTH