Thread: IFS
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Amyjay
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Default Feb 16, 2019 at 09:16 PM
 
I have DID and my T uses a blend of IFS and structural dissociation theory as a lens to view my alters/parts and I. Thinking about the alters as an internal family system works for DID just as it does in non-DID. Everybody has parts of themselves, aspects of themselves that operate in certain situations. Everybody has defense mechanisms that can be conceptualized as being held by protector parts. Every one has the ability to be playful and silly, which can be conceptualized as child parts. Everyone has a range of different aspects of self, each which might be appropriate in one situation but not in another. (Think playful silly self inappropriate in a professional work meeting).

When a child is traumatized the traumatized self states might remain more separate and distinct from each other so the whole person can avoid the conflict and pain held by trauma memories. That separateness can exist on a really wide scale from almost normal self-integration to completely separate autonomous DID alters. The beauty of IFS is that it isn't even necessary to define where on that spectrum the self states fall. You can use it to treat the whole self regardless of the extent of the separation, and know that the self states are perfectly normal aspects of all human beings.

Someone asked about T comforting child states - My T never, ever comforts my child alters. She consistently without fail calls on my compassionate adult alter to do that. Why? It is useless to my healing if we are dependent on her for self-regulation. It is imperative we learn to do that ourselves. If a disregulated child part is out in therapy our T will use all the tricks we have to ground an adult part in the present and then do sets of eye movements (EMDR) to get the most compassionate adult part to soothe and protect the child. She insists we are consistently able to do this before we do any trauma processing.

We can't yet. Nearly there though.
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