Chapter 12. Various Therapeutic Techniques (2)

Th (therapist): A, do you think I can talk to your another identity called B ?
Pt (patient) : I don’t know….. Even if B can talk to you, I don’t know how to make it occur.
Th: Then probably I can help you. Please sit back in your chair, close your eyes and be relaxed. Then breathe in and out slowly and deeply ……. Make sure that when you breathe deep, your tummy goes up and down.
The therapist may counts slowly from one to ten slowly, to assist the patient’s relaxation process.
Th : If you feel relaxed enough, then ask yourself into your mind. “B, if you are ready, you can come out. You don’t need to worry about anything.” If B is ready, he would come out.
Then give the patient a couple of minutes. Notice that at this moment, the therapist is giving B a choice to come out or not. This way A would not feel responsible if B does not come out, as it is not A’s decision. Then after waiting for a couple of minutes, the patient might slowly open her eyes and identifies herself as B, or with a disappointed voice, says “well, it seems that B did not come out.” Sometimes A reports, “B was there, but he was asleep” or “B says that he does not want to show up”, etc. If B appears, you of course introduce yourself.
Th: are you B ? Nice to meet you. My name is so and so, and I wanted to contact you.
By the way, this process of contacting B might sound similar to hypnotic induction, but actually it is somewhat different from it. In hypnosis, what is crucial is the suggestive aspect: “now you become B” “You feel such and such”. In a sense the patient is forced into behaving or thinking in a certain way. In the process of contacting B that I mentioned, it is a mutual interaction and communication among the patient A, B, and the therapist, all of whom on a equal footing.
To control a “violent” personality
Among those who deal with dissociative patients, it is often argued if there is any good way of controlling violent and impulsive identity. Very often patients with DID have some identity who is impulsive, violent, or self-destructive. This identity is often feared by not only patients themselves but also clinicians. When it becomes active, it often creates some trouble in the patients’ relationship or occupational situation, or damage their bodily integrity in various ways, such as wrist cutting or overdose. Some clinicians stress importance in dealing with this violent identity as it might hold the key to the traumatic origin of their dissociative pathology.
They might also hold a view that unless violent identity is directly treated, dangerous behaviors might be repeated or even escalated.