‘A man without a vision is a man without a future. And a man without a future will always return to the past.‘ This is a quote that has been going around in my social circles for years. The neurobiology of trauma tells a different story: Having no experience of a present means having […]
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Summer Break! Sommerpause!
Those who have been here for a while know that we always take some time off during summer (and December) to focus on other tasks. Somehow it is summer already. Where did the time go? We will be back with new articles after our break. Wenn ihr schon länger dabei seid, wisst, ihr, […]
The Way of Tears (Spirituality and Suffering)
During my own therapy process, therapists notice that my system seems stable and well connected. We have strong inner bonds, we pace ourselves better than anyone from the outside could do it, and even trauma processing is kind of smooth and safe. We do have something like a secret recipe for that and I will […]
Epiphany #11: The Difference
What would make a difference? This is an essential question in DID therapy. Many of the normal therapy tools fail to reach deeper into the system than the facade of a host. The host agrees to do what is asked. They always do what they are supposed to do. But, does it make […]
Tipps & Tricks for Digital Conferences for Survivors
Digital options for networking and advocacy are becoming more important. It is a lot easier to invite a bunch of people from all over the country to a video conference than it is to bring them all together in one place. Add special interests or a niche topic and it starts to become impossible […]
Epiphany #10: Paradox Lost
What is this? Some would insist it is a vase. Others would swear it is two faces. Neither of them is right. It is both a vase and two faces. It needs the existence of the vase to get two faces. It needs the faces to make a vase. Yet it is […]
Extended Summer Break
This year, we are taking a longer summer break to finish working on our book manuscript. Thank you for your patience. Sign up for our Newsletter to receive a message as soon as there are new posts available. The form is at the very bottom of the page. […]
Epiphany #9: Not Alone
The voice of shame tells us that we are all alone. Nobody else experiences the same things. . Nobody else is wearing a mask all the time and never lets anyone see the real person behind it. Nobody else keeps up the pretense at work and crumbles once the apartment door closes behind them. Nobody […]
Epiphany #8 : The Whole
Recently we posted an exercise that uses attention to move between awareness for the details and the whole. We need the same posture in DID therapy. We tend to get absorbed by single parts, their characteristics, needs, emotions, goals etc and explore every little detail. While that is valuable, it is not how we […]
Epiphany #7: War and Peace
Most of my therapy journey was based on scanning my body permanently, looking for early signs of dissociation, so I could choose the right tools to counter it. I was looking for reasons to act. It is stressful to live like that because it keeps up a certain degree of hypervigilance at all times. I […]
Epiphany #6: The Good
The perception of a reward leads to sympathetic arousal in our nervous system. Similarly to flight/fight (run away/ approach to overcome) energy is released to approach and get the reward. When a reward is overwhelmingly big we start to shut down. Think of people winning the lottery and fainting or hearing they won a prize […]
Epiphany #5: The State of Shame
Our stress responses come with emotions attached. In flight we feel fear, in fight anger. The emotion that belongs to freeze is shame. In freeze we submit to the one stronger than us, an ancient way of creating a social hierarchy. Shame supports that by telling us our place. “The story follows the state“. We […]