[zoiecat]

I am just curious. What does your T do to treat your DID?

I started seeing a trauma specialist a little over 2 years ago for side effects from a car accident. I knew I had tons of trauma from childhood but had no idea of the full extent. I was diagnosed with DID about 3 to 4 months later.

My T basically does EMDR for trauma in addition to DBT and CBT. He pushes a lot of mindfulness as well. I go to DBT group run by an acquaintance of T and I see T 2 times a week. Occasionally he will let me just talk about things when I am having a reallt hard time but that is rare on his part. He is very goal and progress oriented so there usually has to be one of the main 3 modalities in use for the majority of each session.

Also, especially in the beginning he would teach me how to communicate and work on cooperation between parts.

What does your T do?

[Betty_Banana]

Occasionally he will let me just talk about things when I am having a reallt hard time but that is rare on his part

You should be able to talk about whatever you want whenever you want,you are the one paying him for his services.

My therapist went with the flow,with whatever he was presented with and that was his focus.

Are you ok with the way your T does things?

[zoiecat]

We have our moments where he irritates me. He is starting to allow me to vent more when I need to to avoid me going further down the rabbit hole. I get his point. He wants me to get better and I don't want to be in therapy forever.

I was just wondering what other techniques T use for DID. My T is always willing to speak to whoever presents but I know he would prefer it nit happen during EMDR because that means we gave stopped processing. One of my young parts will start doing her own EMDR soon with my support. That should be interesting.

[Amyjay]

My T is similar in that she does EMDR. We usually do about half and half, with me talking about whatever current issue I have for half of the session, and then her directing our work preparing for trauma processing the other part of the time. I am in a hurry to get to the trauma processing proper but she keeps talking about that coming "later". I have to develop my knowledge of the system, communication with the alters and regulation skills first. Apparently.

[kbonnieboo]

Mine is just like zoecat's. I really like him.

[Rive1976]

Originally Posted by Amyjay

My T is similar in that she does EMDR. We usually do about half and half, with me talking about whatever current issue I have for half of the session, and then her directing our work preparing for trauma processing the other part of the time. I am in a hurry to get to the trauma processing proper but she keeps talking about that coming "later". I have to develop my knowledge of the system, communication with the alters and regulation skills first. Apparently.

How does she prepare for trauma processing? You mean the whole scale like how much does this memory bother you and what feelings come up?

[Amyjay]

Originally Posted by Dnester

How does she prepare for trauma processing? You mean the whole scale like how much does this memory bother you and what feelings come up?

No, we are nowhere near that yet. She said targeting specific memories to process will come much, much later.
Before we can start processing trauma we have to develop awareness of the system, communication between alters, self regulation skills and more. The protocols for using EMDR with dissociative clients are different to normal EMDR and need a lot of groundwork first. At the moment we only use EMDR for installing gains in internal communication, developing compassion between alters, reorienting to the present and things like that.

A clinician should ONLY use EMDR with a dissociative client if they have had the extra training for it.

[zoiecat]

My T always says it is very easy to go too fast with DID but hard to go too slow. I am glad that we have been working on a college memory for the past year or so with EMDR. There is just so much to cover and if I had to wait for full communication and cooperation from all of my parts we would be at it forever. As it is now I still think we will be doing this forever.

[Amyjay]

We will never get there if we have to wait for full knowledge, cooperation and communication with every alter either. I don't think she means that (I hope not!). But she says we need much more than what we currently have before we start processing trauma so that we can remain safe. I asked her when we will be able to start trauma processing a couple weeks ago and she responded that that is a way away yet, we have lots of things to work on first.

I am concerned that this is going to take a very, very long time. I would rather be done with it more quickly.

[zoiecat]

Originally Posted by Amyjay

We will never get there if we have to wait for full knowledge, cooperation and communication with every alter either. I don't think she means that (I hope not!). But she says we need much more than what we currently have before we start processing trauma so that we can remain safe. I asked her when we will be able to start trauma processing a couple weeks ago and she responded that that is a way away yet, we have lots of things to work on first.

I am concerned that this is going to take a very, very long time. I would rather be done with it more quickly.

Good Luck to you. Yes, I would be quite anxious. Luckily for me, we started processing the accident shortly after I started. We never did complete the accident doing EMDR because it kept leading back to childhood stuff. One thing led to another and now I just want to complete one set of traumas from college. Childhood stuff is going to be a nightmare. I can't believe we have been working more than a year on the college issues. Unfortunately that is starting to lead back to childhood too. I hate it all.

I was hoping someone had other suggestions to get through all of this without EMDR which for me is taking FOREVER.

[kbonnieboo]

Everytime we get close to trauma processing I destabilize and we back up. I feel like we'll never move forward, but I get that he's protecting me from flooding and full destabalization.

[possum220]

My T has been doing Schema Therapy with me. Least now I have a bit more clarity about the roles of my parts. Whatever therapy any of us do is going to take time... lots of it.

She talks to all of us. she lets every one of us talk about our trauma and process with it. she has built a relationship with each of us.

We tried EMDR for a short time. In us it caused rapid switching. Alters became confused & upset. Too many alters all upset at same time...Not good. As T started working on an incident of abuse with one alter others who related came forward, connected. We did not need to examine every individual incident. But more their reactions. Now we are co-conscious & trying to work at daily functioning & support as a team. Every family is different. For us EMDR caused more chaos then it solved

[Amyjay]

Originally Posted by cavaliers

We tried EMDR for a short time. In us it caused rapid switching. Alters became confused & upset. Too many alters all upset at same time...Not good. As T started working on an incident of abuse with one alter others who related came forward, connected. We did not need to examine every individual incident. But more their reactions. Now we are co-conscious & trying to work at daily functioning & support as a team. Every family is different. For us EMDR caused more chaos then it solved

That's why my T won't do memory processing with me. Some people have talked about brain spotting. I'd be interested in learning more about that too.

[zoiecat]

Originally Posted by cavaliers

We tried EMDR for a short time. In us it caused rapid switching. Alters became confused & upset. Too many alters all upset at same time...Not good. As T started working on an incident of abuse with one alter others who related came forward, connected. We did not need to examine every individual incident. But more their reactions. Now we are co-conscious & trying to work at daily functioning & support as a team. Every family is different. For us EMDR caused more chaos then it solved

Just curious. Do you just talk each session? I guess my T is so focused on sills and goals that I have a hard time imagining what it would be like to just talk each session.

[susannahsays]

Neurofeedback can be helpful. Seems like over time, tolerance for thinking about traumas grew. Was very gradual, but that's the only thing it could have been.

[kecanoe]

T3 does brainspotting with me. I like it a lot; but it is slow. It is very focused where EMDR can cause larger shifts. For me, EMDR was good for some stuff but not everything.
And bad news about the length of treatment. T3 tells me that the first several years are spent stabilizing and connecting, and that 10 years is common.

Neither of my Ts (nor the ones I have seen in the past) structure the sessions. They pretty much leave it up to me, although T3 will sometimes say that she thinks we should address something in the next session and then leaves it up to me if we do.

[Amyjay]

Originally Posted by kecanoe

And bad news about the length of treatment. T3 tells me that the first several years are spent stabilizing and connecting, and that 10 years is common.

I just really don't want it to take that long.

I'd love to know more about the brainspotting process if you are able to share.

[zoiecat]

I have also considered brainspotting and found someone who would do it but I would like to know more as well. My T knows I don't want to be in therapy forever. Although he is very goal oriented and won't let me just ramble on about what is bothering me that day and makes it quite clear that it is his ethical duty to refer me if I have not made any progress thoughout the year; when I confront him and push him to give me a time frame he always says more than five and less than ten. Since it has already been 2 years and we have barely broken the surface, I know this means more like 10. That really scares me. I am not getting any younger. It just seems so daunting and hopeless, but I do see now where my past traumas have controlled and ruined every aspect of my life so far and I need to make some changes if I want to experience any happiness before I die.

[MickeyCheeky]

If there's something that bothers you, I think you should speak up about it to your therapist, zoiecat, if you haven't already. After all, you're the client. I believe you have every right to do this. That's just my opinion, though. The final decision is up to you. I hope your therapy is working out ok for you. Feel free to PM me anytime. I'm always available if you need to talk. Sending many hugs to you