Thanks (((((((Kimmy))))) for editing and giving me back my posts so that I can make a separate thread -

There is a thread here in Dissociative Disorders about a book called Managing stress through the arts put out by SIDRAN.

I don't want anyone to feel like I am hijacking the thread but I wanted to update MY posts with in that thread that contains my blog links.

For those that want to know what those blog links go to they are the following -

By the way this book and many others can be found on my thread called resourses and or in my blog. Here is a copy of MY OWN BLOG entry about MY many resourses.

Since this entry is being copied from MY own entry and placed here in the community boards it now falls under the new guidelines since what is in this post and what is in my blog are one and the same -

Anyone that wants to post this in any other areas such as their own blogs must now ask my permission to do so since it is now a post here with in the community message boards...
copied from my blog -

http://myself.psychcentral.net/resource-materials/

Resource Materials
This page is a mixture of books, movies, websites and treatment facilities and cover such topics as Anxiety, Depression, flashbacks, panic attacks, PTSD, DID, Hypnosis, and so on. this page will continue to be updated as I am always on the lookout for new non fiction resources. This list can also be found on the psych central community message boards. In the thread on the community message boards the members of psych central are welcome to add their non fiction resourses. I have added those resources to this list also. None of these resourses are at the moment in any type of order be it alphabetical, topic or if I agreed witht hem or not. After reading over this list I realized for the most part I will not be able to put them in topic catagories because many of them address more than one topic so this list will be added to but not broken up into catagories.. I chose to keep even books that I did not entirely agree with on the list so that readers can make up their own minds of what books to read and how they want to apply that book to their healing process. Personally each book in itself had something - a paragraph, a chapter and or the whole book that I could relate to and use in my therapy process.

The New Personality Self Portrait by John Oldham
Repressed memories by Renee Fredrickson
Amongst ourselves by Dr. tracy Alderman and Karen Marshall
Minds in many pieces
Recreating Yourself by Nancy J Napier
Getting through the Day by Nancy J Napier
Nancy J Napier website
Can I Look Now by Rachel Downing MSW,LCSW
The Courage to heal Text and Workbook by Laura Davis
I Thought we’d never Speak again by Laura Davis
Laura Davis Website
The obsidian Mirror by Louis Wisechild
Adults Molested as Children - a survivors manual to healing
Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder Bennett Braum
Multiple Personality Disorders from the inside out by Barry Cohen
United we stand by Eliana Gil
Childhood antecedents of Multiple personality Disorder by Richard Kuft
The American Psychiatric Association
Diagnosis and treatment of multiple personality disorder by Frank Putnam
Dissociation in children and adolescents by Frank Putnum
Multiple personality Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features and treatment by Dr. Colin Ross
Multiples Guide to harmonized family living - a healthy alternative or prelude to integration by Tammy Colleen Whitman and Susan Shore
Outgrowing the pain by Eliana Gil
Treatment of adult survivors of child sexual abuse
Dissociative disorders a clinical review by David Spiegal
Memory and abuse: remembering and healing the effects of trauma by Charles Whitfield
Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder by Ivan Yalam and James Spira
Free of the shadows: recovering from sexual voilence by Caren Adams and Jennifer Fay
I cant get over it by Aphrodite Matsakis
The Anger Workbook by Lorraine Bideau
Imagry in healing by J. Achterberg.

Unity and Multiplicity by J. O Beahrs
Assessment and Treatment of Multiple Personality and Dissociative Disorders by J. P. Bloch
Dissociation - a Journal put out by ISSD
ISSD- International Society for the Study of Dissociation website
Silencing the Voices by Jean Darby Cline
Managing Stress through Art by SIDRAN
SIDRAN website
PTSD Workbook
Understanding Dissociation - ISSD film available to certified and licensed professionals only so clients will need their therapist cooperation for access to this film
New York Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation
PILOTS Database
DDIS (the complete unedited version of this diagnostic test is available only through professionals
DES same as DDIS though there are numerous mental health websites that have shortened and edited versions available
Colin Ross Institute
Timberlawn Mental Health System Dallas Texas
Forest View hospital Grand Rapids Michigan
Del Amo Hospital Torance California
NAMI - Website and nation wide agencies
DSM IV - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th Edition
DSM IV TR - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th edition Text Revised
Handbook of DSM IV - TR explains the two above books
Encyclopedia of Schitzophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders 2nd Edition
Stedman’s Medical Dictionary 27th edition
The Gayle Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders
The Merck Manual of Medical information
American College of Physicians complete home medical guide
Life After Trauma: a workbook for healing for survivors of sex abuse by Lynn Finney JD, MSW
Overcoming Anxiety, Panic and Depression by James Gardner MD
Overcoming Panic, Anxiety and Phobias by Shirley Baboir LCSW, MFCC
When Going through hell doesn’t stop by Douglas Bloch
The Search for the real self: Unmasking the personality Disorders of our age by James Masterson MD
The Big Book of Relaxation
The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Davis
The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson
Relax into healing by Nancy Hopp
The Anxiety and Phobia workbook by Edmund Bourne
Hypnosis The Wakeful Sleep by Larry Kettlekamp
Self Hypnosis in 2 days by Freda Morias
Through the Open Door - Secrets of self Hypnosis by Kevbin Hogan
Of one Mind: the logic of hypnosis, the practice of therapy by Douglas Flemmons
Hypnosis: medicine of the mind
Journal of Trauma and Dissociation by ISSD
The Myth of Sanity by Martha Stout
Mary Ellen Copeland website
The Depression Workbook by Mary Ellen Copeland
Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder Handbook
Healing the Divided Self
Attachment, Trauma and Multiplicity:working with Dissociative Identity Disorder
The Body Remembers
The Scarred Soul by Dr. Tracy Alderman
D.I.D by Dr. Colin Ross
Double Vision by Anna Richardson
Reaching for the Light by Emilie Rose
Understanding Self Injury By Kim Trautman and Robin Conners
I Never Told Anyone by Ellen Bass
Our Stunning Harvest by Ellen Bass
Free Your Mind by Ellen Bass
I went to the Animal Farm by Heather Harpham Kopp
I Stole God from Goody Two Shoes by Heather Harpham Kopp
Four Winds Hospital (Branches in Katona and Saratoga New York)
Mclean Hospital Belmont MA
River Oaks Psychiatric Hospital New Orleans LA
2 Rivers Psychiatric Hospital Kansas MO
Dr. Sheppard Pratt Baltemore MD
Brattleboro Retreat Brattleboro VT

Multiple Selves, Multiple Voices” by Phil Mollon.

Invisible Heros by Belleruth Naparstak

Many voices



TRIGGER and DISCLAIMER warnings What follows is

MY PERSONAL EXPERIECES, RESEARCH AND SO FORTH

Since I am unable to know each and every persons triggers on the world wide web I* leave it up to the readers to take care of themeslves when reading the following

AND

Should their experiences be different then mine that IS OK.

This post is about MY experiences. and MY experiences ONLY.

The links above in my earlier post go to -

http://myself.psychcentral.net/2006/10/10/art-projects/

Art Therapy Projects part 1
I had an emal asking me how to do some of my art projects specifically my house project and making Diaramas. All my projects are meant to take alot of time to do and are not meant to be perfect. They are meant to be done from the point of view of the time frame of the project not from the adult logical point of view. Memories are stored from the point of view of when the situation is happening not from the point of view that something has happened years ago and is just now after the fact being stored. So when doing memory recall work with a focus on using artistic ways to access those memories you need to push aside your logical present day point of view and not second guess what you are doing. If you are constantly thinking “no that couldn’t have happened that way” or “no it isn’t supposed to look that way” or “a____ couldn’t have been there” or “that person could not have done that” you will end up getting frustrated with the project and also be missing the point of t he project - to remember what happened back in the past from the point of view of when it happened. Sometimes memories don’t make sense or it is more on the emotion of the memory. And second guessing as you go along is a sure way to defeat your own memory process of remembering what happened to you, what you saw, heard, tasted, felt physically or emotionally. So all my projects just are what they are. There is no hidden meaning and no right and wrong they just are what they are - my experiences or my emotions that I felt back then and so on.

Lets start with the house project. The house project is very involved. It takes alot of time. Materials you will need for scale models is -

coregated cardboard. I used boxes that got from the local grocery and department stores on their days they recive their inventory shipments. I opened them up at the seams.

Scissors

glue, lots of glue. I use elmers because it holds alot better then the dollor store brands and right before school starts I can get lots of it on sale sometimes cheeper then the dollor store.

a ream of plain white photocopy/typing/printing paper. (at the least 1 but you may need more depending on the size of your scale model. reams of paper come with a number of brightness on the label. make sure you get the same brightness when buying more otherwise you may end up with a scale model looking like it is different shades of white.

ruler

pencil

water color paints and or crayons and or markers

popcycle sticks if you want your scale model to be take apart able storable.

The first step is to decide what type of scale model you are going to make. For me it was a house, specifically the house I grew up in.

One you know what your scale model is going to be using a pencil draw on white paper your scale model from as many angles as you can.

For my house I drew floor plans for each floor level of the house including where the doors, windows and stair cases were, a view of the house from the front, back, and both right and left sides.

Then I went though my sketches and wrote in the measurements in some cases a very estimated measurment of how high the walls were wideth and lenght of each room, how many stairs I could remember on each staircase. for my present house project I used the measurement of one inch equaled one foot.

I tried to upload a picture but it just isn’t working so on your floor plans write in your measurements of each wall and floor for height width and length.

To make the house take apart able divide the length by three so you will have three equal floorboards. Once you have your measurements using a pencil and ruler measure out your cardboard and cut the slabs out.

then using some glue and white paper totally cover each cardboard slab completely with the white paper.

After the glue drys take popcycle sticks and lay three sticks on each slab in three spots along the long edge of the slabs so that the sticks on one slab match where the sticks are on the slab next to it.

these are going to be “brackets”. For my house each of my brackets contained three sticks.

once you know where your brackets are going to be take each stick and slightly bend it in the middle,

put glue just on the ends (not where it is bent) and place back where you want the bracket to be.

do this with all bracket sticks and let dry.

Once dry slip a popcycle stick through one bracket on one slab through to and into the bracket on the matching slab.

Once this is done with all three of your floor boards turn the boards so that the sticks are underneath and facing you is whilte floor boards.

Along the edge of the floor place popcycle sticks like you are framing a picture on top of the floorboards.

make sure you don’t glue popcycle sticks over the crack where each floor board meets the next one. otherwise your house will not be take a part able.

Do this four times so that each popcycle stick is now four sticks high. These sticks are going to help hold your foundation walls in place.

Now cut out your 2 width boards one for the right side of the house and one for the left side of the house, and 2 length boards one for the front of the house and one for the back of the house.

Make each boards height the same as the height of your house rooms. for my house I made the foundation boards 8 inches tall.

After you cut them out cover them with glue and white paper and let dry.

once they are dry lay boards down flat and on the two short ends of the board make a one stick bracket. and let dry.

these brackets are going to be used to slip a piece or cardboard through and around the corner into the matching one on the next board basically holding your boards together at the corners.

After the brackets are dry place a board on the flooring against the four stick high popcycle sticks and place a thin piece of cardboard through the bracket around the corners and into the next board of each board.

in a few spots along the inside of your walls where they meet the floor place four high popcycle sticks so that they hold the walls up but be carefull not to use so much glue that you end up gluting the walls to the popcycpe sticks. I avouded this by placing a few sticks in one layer then removing the walls to build the stick four high, then when they dried put the walls back in place You now have your house foundation and or basement made.

To make rooms within the foundation or basement do the same process of making the foundation walls using brackets to hold walls together and four high popcycle sticks to help stabilize the walls.

If you dont have a basement place a slab wall half way though in there anyway it will help stabilize the upper floors of the house.

for each floor level that your house has make the floor boards the same way that you made the floor boards of the foundation.

For each floor level for the outside of the house make the wall boards the same way as you meade the foundation - basement with one exception do NOT “frame” popcycle sticks on the floor boards along the outside edges.

Make brackets on your walls close to the edge where the floor board meets the wall. and in the floor boards of each level take a pointed knife or the scissors and put a slit through the floor board where you want the stick going down though the bracket and into the floor. on the wall of the level below it also make mathching brakets of three sticks per braket. the bottom stick flat and totally glued so that when you place the stick through the upper floor bracket, through the floor slit and into the braket on the lower floor wall it does not go completely out of the bottom bracket.

To add rooms on each level repeat the process of making the basement foundation walls..

Do the same process for making a roof of measuring out slabs covering with white paper and placing three brakets and cardboard through to make it V shaped. if you have slanted to a peak roofs you will need the height to be the same as the height of each floor level and the width the same as the width of the foundation width so that as they slant they will meet in the middle. tohold each roof side together make three bracket on each roof slat along the length of th e roof and slip a piece of cardboard through the brakets from one slab to the other.

Your house skeliton is now done. Go around with a pencil, marker or paint and draw or paint on your windows and doors and any other decorations your house had on it in the past.

To make the inside decor measure out your paper and color or decorate to what your rooms look(ed) like.

furnature, and people? Another entry. have a good night everyone.

http://myself.psychcentral.net/2006/...art-therapy-2/

Art Therapy
Before I get into my next entry topic I want to say thank you and glad you like my blog to “I am amased” and the same to “I am impressed”, and to “do you plan to continue talking about “Myself” and having DID your blog has been so helpful” Yes I still plan on keeping my focus of this blog on “Myself” , DID and my therapy experiences with having DID. and after saying that lets get into another very important part of my therapy program - Art Therapy.

When people think about the words Art Therapy” they think about being in a room with a therapist and being told to draw a tree, house and a person (or other things) and based on that the therapist will be able to magically be able to tell them what is wrong with them and poof their problems will be solved.

When I was first introduced to the concept of “Art Therapy” I was taking a Personal Psychology class and other psychology classes in college. We had just done a chapter on diagnostic testing and so on and the instructor came in one day and said “for your homework this week you are to do Art Therapy.”

EVERY ONE of us came in to the next session with sketches, paintings and so on ALL with the SAME theme - a perfectly proportioned tree, house and person thinking he was going to have us exchange our works of art and tell each other what was going on for each person.

The instructor on the other hand walks in carrying a huge box and sets out all kinds of things made with paint, clay, mosaic tiles, ceramics, macrame, crocheted, knitted, construction papered shoe box scenes. He also had us set up out works of art. then on a piece of paper we had to write a discription of when and why we made what we did. Mine said something like I drew them right after class last week because we had to do an Art Therapy assignment.

On the papers describing the instructors Art Therapy there were things like - I painted this after dinner I like to unwind by painting, My daughter made this sculpture when she was angry at me for grounding her, My wife made this to express her love for the new baby coming into the family, My son made his handprints in school to tell his mom how much he loved her for mothers day…. The list goes on.

After everyone had set up thier displays complete with explaination the instructor surprised us by bringing in a collegue of his from a near by mental health agency. He asked the instructor to go through and pick out the one assignment that is considered to be “Art Therapy”

The psychiatrist walked from item to item and then back to the front of the room and said he could not pick just one because there was more than one in the group infact they were all considered samples of Art Therapy.

He then told us for something to be considered Art Therapy there was only one criteria and that was that the person doing the art work was expressing themselves. That expression can be an abstract painting after dinner to unwind, or even just for something to do or it can be a person making a painting with a specific theme about what is going on in the persons life. A five year old coloring in a coloring book is doing art therapy and a person sitting in a therapy office drawing a shape for diagnostic reasons is doing art therapy. A child stacking blocks to make a tower is doing art therapy just as much as a person whittling a tower statue out of wood, Any way that a person uses that tangibly expresses themselves be it they are bored and need to color or they have pent up energy that they need to release its all Art Therapy, and can be done anywhere at any time.

Then he grabbed a students notebook and opened to a page that had some doodling in the margins and said even in the classroom Art Therapy is being done to express someones boredom of the class topic, or their need to express what the topic is in picture instead of words. Art Therapy is everywhere you look.

I personally do many forms of Art Therapy.

I have found pictures that I have drawn and or painted while I was unaware and floating in la la land and physically acting from the memory pieces.

I color in coloring books

I use oil pastels (though Im more a mess then anything when I do so when aware)

Last summer I crocheted afgans for a couple friends birthdays

I crocheted an afgan for my son while I was pregnant.

I make diarama’s out of construction paper, glue and shoe boxes.

I made two scale model houses - one out of cardboard, glue, while paper, glue, water color paint, the other the same plus popcycle sticks.

Futniture for the houses by using cardboard, glue, drinking straws, color pencils and water color paint

posable Dolls out of wire, white fabric, glue and modeling clay

I also make Collages, mosaics, macrame hangers, latch hook, embroidery, Knit, and at least on one occasion when I wasnt aware made a painted design on to a plain sweatshirt, and love the art of photography.

I use many of these types of art in my therapy program. Sometimes its just splattering paint on a paper and randomly connecting the dots to see what I can see while I think about what is going on in my head and other times its a scale model house with furniture and dolls to match.

sometimes I do my art therapy on my own and sometimes I include LL my therapist. for example when LL and I did the sand tray activity I remember starting to play in the sand and making a sand mountain while talking to her, the day before my last therapy session with LL I dropped of some photos of my house project - nightmare and during therapy LL asked me some questions about them.

I love doing Art Therapy. Im the type of person that is hands on as much as possible type person. And using various types of art has been great for me DID therapy wise because there are so many different textures, smells and sounds and so on to be found and experienced by using art as a way to express myself.

and

http://myself.psychcentral.net/2006/...ojects-part-2/

Art Therapy Projects part 2
For those asking where the link is to Dr Tracy Alderman and Karen Marshal up until tonight you had to go into the blog index and click on my entry called - Dr. Tracy Alderman and Karen Marshall because the add a link feature here does not add a link for email addresses just websites.

I have it rigged right now so that you can now click on the link called Dr Tracy Alderman and that will automatically bring you to the blog entry that contains the contact information to Tracy and Karen.

Also Im still having trouble getting a picture up loaded to my blog entries for the samples you want - a sample of floor plans and picture of a sample of making a scale model house. if you want more info feel free to email me and I will send it to you by doing an attachment by email. That I do know how to do. LOL

as you can already guess this part too will most likely not have any pictures and diagrams. I have some doll making pictures uploaded onto my computer so I can also send those to anyone that wants them by email attachment.

now on to part 2 of art therapy projects -

Someone wants to know how to make stair cases out of paper.

there are two ways -

the first and easiest one is cut a piece of cardboard to the right size slab then, cover with paper and then with pencil, marker, crayon or pen draw lines to represent the stairs. in the floor of the floor boards where the top of the staircase is going to be cut out a square. then put the house back together slipping the staircase down from the upper floor to the lower floor at the desired angle - steepness of the staircase that you remember.

The second is just a bit harder - cut your flooring hole for the stair case. take a slab of cardboard the width you want your staircase to be but double the length needed. for example if the walls are 8 inches from floor of the first floor and the floor of the second floor you want a slab of cardboard to be 16 inches long. cover with paper then draw the lines to represent the stairs. then make a fold on each of those lines so that your slab of cardboard kind of looks like the folds of an accordian or fan. Set this aside and cut another slab of cardboard the exact width and length you need for the staircase. cover with paper. then slowly glue the accordian fan like slab to the second slab and using crumpled pieces of paper between the two to get the desired height and shape of each stair. you may need to let the glue dry on each stair before going on to shaping and gluing the next stair to the second slab. Once you have the desired staircase slip into the floor hole in the upper floor to the lower flooring to get the desired slant on your staircase.

Dollmaking for your house -

materials needed -

wire (I use the wire that is left over from my used one subject notebooks)

Wire cutters

glue

white cotton cloth (I use old sheets)

scissors

modeling clay


Step one is to straighten the notebook wire.

Step 2 take the wire cutters and cut 3 equal sides wires for a female doll and 4 wires for a male doll. 4 and a half inch long wires result in 4 and a half inch dolls.

step 3 fold wires separately so that you have 2 horse shoe shaped wires and one completely folded in half wire (if male doll set 4th wire aside for the moment)

Step 4 set the wires on the table so that you have one horse shoe shaped wire pointing upwards (arms). right below that wire place the wire that is completely folded in half so that the open end is pointing up to the other wire (spine). then below that place the third wire with the open end of the horseshoe pointing down (legs)

Assembling -

1. take the legs and slip into the bottom of the spine wire. wrap both prongs of the spine wire in opposite directions around the legs wire and then up so they are once again pointing upwards. (if you are making a male doll and want the dolls penis to be posable make loops a bit bigger).

2. do the same with the arms towards the top of the wire making sure that when the spine wire is once again pointing upwards there is a stub of wire left so that the head can rest on it.

Your skelleton is now made

feet hands and head -

using the modeling clay form the hands feet and head onto the skelleton. be sure to make them a bit larger then you think you need. Gently remove from skelleton and bake according to the modeling clay directions. once cool place back onto the skelleton.

adding the body and securing the hands, feet and head -

using the scissors cut very thin strips of cloth. add glue (if you want your doll to be posable coat cloth in less glue, if you don’t want a posable doll add more glue) and wrap the wire frame at the hip then go straight down and loop aroud the bottom of the foot and straight back up to the hip. Then wrap mummy style down the leg over the cloth and wire. when you get to the bottm wrap the foot too.. then work your way back up wrapping mummy style. set doll aside and let dry. then do the same thing for the other leg and foot and the arms, hands and head.

Once the skelleton has been wrapped and the hands, feet and head have been secured continue wraping strips of gluey strips of cloth until you have the desired of your doll.

If making a male doll wrap the cloth loosely in the loop area. when you have a couple layers so that the legs and spine are stable take the 4th wire previously set aside. bend into a horse shoe and thread through the loops

once it is threaded through the loops and you have both ends twist them together. The tighter you twist the less movement the penis will make.

cut wire to desired length.

using the modeling clay fashon your dolls penis and like with the hands, feet, and head bake accoding to clay directions. when cool place bake on the twisted wire. and wrap like the hands feet and head were for securing. I usually put the penis back on AFTER I have most of my dolls shaping done.

I have best outcomes with my doll making when I let each layer of cloth and glue dry before adding the next layer.

And again since these blog entries are now a part of the community message boards no part or whole of them can be discussed copied and so forth in any one elses blogs and so on with out my permission to do so.

Just in case there are some that may be concerned that one or more of my memory pieces (parts, fragments, alters which ever word is used) may be acting out or that I may not be following the new guidelines when makinng these new posts about my blog links-

One -

- I - Don't dissociate on line for none of - MY - memory pieces contains any computer information that I know of that would result in my posting while unaware.

When something on line no matter where I am triggers me I log out and I use my grounding and relaxation techniques.

and Two -

There is nothing in the guidelines that state a person cannot update THIER OWN POSTS by copying their OWN blog entries and bring them into the community area where they previously placed links.

If there are any concerned supporters and so on please know that I am completely fine and am just updating my posts where I have blog links by reveiling what is under those blog links.