Blog #9 (chapters 17&18)
Internal Family Systems Therapy was so fascinating!! It reminded me of when I was in my undergrad program at Dordt. Tara Boer brought in someone that she worked with who had multiple different personalities. This person had experienced a great deal of trauma in his past. As a way of coping with trauma, he developed multiple different ‘personalities or identities’ for different situations. He had names for all of the different personalities, and he did explain them to be like a family system. I’m not sure what type of therapy that he went through, but I’m wondering if it wasn’t a form of IFS because of how well his different personalities complemented each other rather than fought against each other.
I worked with a child last summer who I saw developing a different personality to help him cope with abuse he was faced from his father. He described that when he felt afraid and misbehaved it wasn’t him it was his other personality. This child was frustrated with the other personality because though he knew he was keeping him safe, he was also getting him in trouble. I feel like this child could have benefit greatly from going through a modality like IFS.
I had never heard of psychomotor therapy, but I enjoyed reading about it a lot. I started thinking about how it could have been helpful for a lot of the children I worked with the past few summers at Camp Autumn (a mental and behavioral health camp). I did appreciate how he said this modality doesn’t have the ability to erase bad memories, but rather provide a way to remember an alternative memory. I think it is important to make sure we aren’t giving false hope to our clients and say that they won’t have that memory at the end of our time in therapy.
My supervisor has talked about a counseling case of a girl who had experienced sexual abuse from an uncle. Though I don’t think it was this specific modality, it sounds like there are many similarities. My supervisor took him back through the memory and talked through things that happened. He explains that she now has the ability to think back to those memories and see Christ with her even in the hard times holding her. That extremely hard memory was replaced with a comforting memory of Christ. Her basic human needs of acceptance, love, safety, and protection were all fulfilled by Christ in this alternative memory.
What a brave young man to come into a setting like that. That would have been interesting to listen to his story.
ReplyDeleteI have only heard good things about Camp Autumn. Are you planning on being a part of it this year?
You are right that we must ensure our clients don't have a sense of false hope that their bad memories will never be there again. Do you suppose that is continuously discussed through treatment or during rapport building?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and examples from your experiences. I found the psychomotor therapy to be very interesting and may want to look into it more. I am curious after reading about these two modalities do you find yourself liking one enough to maybe get trained in it or use it in your work?
ReplyDeletePrior to reading this book, I had never heard of treating DID with therapy. I have only known it to be treated by medication. To be honest, I thought that was the only way to treat it. Its interesting to know there are other options out there that could be more effective. Medications don't really seem to work from what I've seen and only seem to stifle parts of the individual.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been really interesting to hear from a client who struggled with DID. I have not experienced working with this population so I appreciate your thoughts and observations. It sounds like Camp Autumn has played an important role in your passions for helping those with mental health - I'd love to hear more about your experiences. I also enjoyed reading about your current internship and how your supervisor as been able to integrate Christ into their work together.
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