My History with Ego State Therapy

I wrote this as a prologue to the Greek version of Easy Ego State Interventions and realized that it will make a good post: I have been looking through the lenses of ego state therapies since 1981. During that year, my first out of graduate school, I took a course in Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis

By |2019-05-16T10:52:12-07:00May 16th, 2019|Comments Off on My History with Ego State Therapy

Easy Ego State Intervention Workshops

Dear Readers, Ego state work has been around since before Freud, and in latter years, has been the main stay of many practices. Interventions can range from "How old did you feel when you were yelling at your wife?" to "Let's identify those dissociative states that take over your body." I've been working with this

By |2018-04-16T12:30:12-07:00April 16th, 2018|Comments Off on Easy Ego State Intervention Workshops

Trauma Treatment Handbook: Protocols Across the Spectrum

My copy of the new book arrived today. Here is what Diana Fosha says about it:"This is a thorough, accessible, and very practical book, filled with resources and sound ideas, filtered through the intelligence and experience of a savvy, compassionate, down-to-earth, and very experienced clinician. It is like a travel guide to the land of

By |2010-08-17T19:22:38-07:00August 17th, 2010|5 Comments

Kathy Steele: Neurobiology of DID, on Science Friday

Kathy Steele, cocreator of the Structural Dissociation Theory, patiently defends the existence of Dissociative Identity Disorder to Ira Flatow and Numan Gharaibeh (a clueless psychiatrist) on NPR's Science Friday. Worth a listen: http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200911133  I've run into this blindness before, mostly in analytically trained psychiatrists, despite all evidence.

By |2009-11-13T20:35:04-08:00November 13th, 2009|7 Comments

Lessons Learned While Writing A Book for Psychotherapists

I'm 13 chapters into writing Trauma Treatments Handbook, Across the Spectrum. Here's the advice I'd give anyone doing the same thing: Get a second screen for your computer. Keep the reference page, internet search materials, etc. open on the second screen. It will save you days of searching for the right open file. Start the

By |2009-09-07T20:28:46-07:00September 7th, 2009|5 Comments

Trauma Lecture

I'll be giving a lecture about trauma, PTSD, Structural Dissociation, the Polyvagal theory and the use of EMDR to impact PTSD on Saturday morning, May 17 from 9:30 to 12. Frank Kokorowsk will copresent with a dynamite multi-modal trauma treatment that he's been using with homeless people. There are 2 CE's for everyone and it's

By |2008-05-15T08:13:28-07:00May 15th, 2008|2 Comments

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

We all know what Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) looks like: repetitive rituals, obsessive thoughts, and the people who are thinking or doing the compulsive thinking or behavior and know that they're not being rational. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Order (OCPD) is something else. People with OCPD are detail oriented, to the exclusion of the big picture. They are

By |2007-09-03T16:37:02-07:00September 3rd, 2007|6 Comments

Resistance

I don't believe in resistance. When my consultees talk about their clients' "resistance", I immediately stop them and have them discuss what the client is doing to "resist". I believe in fear. I believe in reflexive avoidance of that which makes us uncomfortable or retraumatized. If my client "resists" my suggestion it's either because I'm

By |2007-08-16T15:39:13-07:00August 16th, 2007|Comments Off on Resistance

Long-Term Clients

I've been in practice since 1981. During that time, I've seen around 1000 clients and in the last decade consulted to other therapists about at least a thousand more. DSM diagnoses are one way to describe clients. Another way is by the length of time they stay in therapy. (Not counting analysands) Here is a

By |2007-07-29T21:13:08-07:00July 29th, 2007|4 Comments

Haunted Self II

I don't know where to start with this important, exhaustive description of theory, etiology, description, and treatment of dissociative phenomena. I liked this book a lot. I was frequently frustrated in my reading. Only two other people attended the book group. Neither had finished the book. They found it interesting, and slow going. They had

By |2007-06-25T13:47:15-07:00June 25th, 2007|2 Comments

The Haunted Self I

Our book group selection is The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and Treatment of Chronic Traumatization by van der Hart, Nijenhuis and Steele. The authors are all officers in the ISSD, the International Society for Study of Dissociation. ( http://www.isst-d.org/index ) The book is the most exhaustive (and somewhat exhausting) definition and description of what dissociation

By |2007-06-17T10:05:05-07:00June 17th, 2007|Comments Off on The Haunted Self I
Go to Top