For years I have been searching for the right method of trauma treatment for me and my clients with complex developmental trauma. I am, therefore, very excited to have been learning of late, from Janina Fisher’s latest book and from an online course with her, about helping clients overcome the “internal self-alienation” that can result from such ongoing traumatic experiences as childhood neglect or abuse.
Fisher uses the Structural Dissociation model as the basis for her understanding of trauma symptoms. This model theorizes that, when trauma occurs, the personality splits into a “going on with normal life” portion of the self and trauma-related parts of the personality which are formed as coping mechanisms to deal with overwhelming experiences. These parts are: fight, flight, freeze, submit and attach.
Clients with traumatic symptoms blend with one part or another at different times and think that they are that part, rather than a larger self that contains all the parts. Thus, they may be overcome with anger (fight) at one moment and just want to escape (flight) at another moment. This internal chaos is very confusing and distressing for clients and can also be confusing to therapists!
Using wisdom gleaned from Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems model and from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Fisher demonstrates how to help clients “unblend” from their parts by helping them see their parts via the light of mindfulness. She then helps them get to know and befriend their parts so that the parts (which are stuck back in the age of childhood in which they were formed) can be brought up to date and get what they needed back then from the client’s adult self now. In this way the personality gradually re-integrates and trauma symptoms subside.
I am particularly excited by this method of trauma treatment because it jibes well with the attachment basis and techniques of Emotion-Focused therapy which I have been using for years and because trauma can be healed without the pain and suffering of re-experiencing traumatic memories.