Re: DID and EMDR
I'll say a couple general things that may or may not apply to you.
Oddly, a present trauma can sometimes really help mobilize DID treatment. I know that sounds twisted, but here's the rationale. First off, DID results from a lifetime/longtime of having to disown unbearable truths and pain. Throwing things over the wall, as it were, or stuffing things in a closet. Much of the self system is organized around keeping secrets from the self and the world, or not feeling things. Not being present in the body, in the life.
A current trauma occurs and it either 1) causes the closet door to fly open and everything falls out, so stuff simply has to be dealt with finally or, 2) causes enough pressure and pain in the self system that a greater portion of the system is suffering and therefore ready to allow some changes.
Present traumas typically cause deep reverberations because there may be common themes between the present situation and the unworked past -- themes like loss, or shame, or betrayal.
Now having said all this, it still doesn't work to dive in and do deep uncovering work right away. It is still necessary to make sure people have the ego strength and inner resources to do the work. And it is still necessary for all parts of self to understand they are in the body, they need to be oriented to current place, time, and the life they are actually living. Loyalty to others, including perpetrators, above self, is a real problem that has to be addressed or the treatment gets stymied.
Resources are anything life enhancing. Resources activate the ventral vagal nervous system. Cole slaw can be a resource. Friends. A horse. A kitten. A pleasant color. A talent. A bubble bath. a walk in the woods. or even the thought of a walk in the woods. all these are strengthening.
For people who are willing and so inclined, strengthening spiritual resources is the ...um...industrial strength resourcing method - it trumps everything else. for those who aren't, fine, another list will help. Grounding. Music that taps into the soul.
That's why I have oodles of links to indigenous song and dance videos on my website. Because Native American and Native Hawaiian music and dance are one path to activating the ventral vagal nervous system at a high level, for some people.
Once people are resourced, whether spiritually, through nature, or through a more mundane method, they are further down the road to healing. Then they can stomach untangling the inner conflicts, and then they can face the necessary work of facing trauma. Even there, there are means to make that work more tolerable.
enough said,--Sandra
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