Hi, To clarify, I am "highly dissociative". I am DID, and in the process of integration. However, the fact that I am DID does not mean that every body sensation I have is another "part". Sometimes an alter is there, and gets a headache, or experiences nausea. To address each sensation as a part is further fragmenting. I often had the feeling, in my previous therapy, that I wasn't fragmented "enough", as my therapist seemed to enjoy addressing every thought, emotion, and body sensation as an additional "part of self". In fact, I have a large, highly organized system of parts and projecting fragmentation where there was none, was not at all useful. Besides, my therapist, in her zeal to use this technique, often overlooked the "actual" parts -- distinct mannerisms, thought patterns and beliefs -- as they emerged. They did not pop up on her radar, as she was consumed with addressing every detail of self as a "part". She missed the forest for the trees, so to speak. In any case, I think the issue is not whether someone is highly dissociative, but whether interweaves (such as ego state techniques) are appropriate. Just because someone is dissociative doesn't mean they necessarily will loop. While I understand that work with DD and EMDR can be thorny, it is, to my mind, a strange assumption that it MUST be thorny. I've posted before about the DNMS protocol, which is an extremely complex ego state assisted EMDR technique supposedly designed to make EMDR safer and more pleasant for clients. It is, in effect, an enormous interweave, offered to and taught to clients, before they even have a "chance" to loop or process through on their own. I have an idea: let's give people the chance to heal themselves. Isn't the basis of EMDR the belief that the resolution, insight and joy exist within us and we may simply learn to access them? I would argue strongly that even highly dissociative clients are capable of not looping, of healing themselves. After all, minds capable of such dissociation and illogic and dissonance must be capable of equally mighty tasks of healing. As a psychologist said to me a few nights ago, much to my amusement, "DID is not a disorder for wimps". No, it's not. So, let's save the interweaves for those that need them, and have demonstrated the need, and not begin EMDR work WITH complex interweaves, with the assumption that EMDR is dangerous and destabilizing, whether or not someone is DID. That is, to be blunt, folly. Invention being the mother of necessity. Thank you for allowing me to express these thoughts. And thank you for your responses.
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