Advanced Integrative Therapy for Dissociative Identity Disorder
The following series of 5 articles, written by Gill Frost, were published on the PESI UK Blog in 2021/22. PESI UK are a non-profit organisation providing training for psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists & mental health professionals.
1/5: Understanding DID
Published Dec 2021
There may be more people in the UK with dissociative identity disorder than with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Yet core therapy trainings rarely cover DID, which is often misdiagnosed and frequently misunderstood. In the first part of a new blog series aimed at developing awareness, therapist and author Gill Frost introduces DID as a natural defence mechanism in response to extreme childhood trauma and abuse – and shares her reaction when an adult client’s young ‘alter’ first came out of hiding.
2/5: Working with the Body
Published Dec 2021
A gentle but powerful energy therapy for working with the effects of trauma, Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT) helped Gill Frost to transform the life of her first client with dissociative identity disorder (DID). In the second part of her blog series, the author of The Girls Within outlines the basic principles of this initially ‘strange sounding’ therapy, including the role of treatment phrases and muscle testing in targeting deeply embodied trauma.
3/5: A Six-Year-Old Part
Published Dec 2021
To what part of our clients do which traumatic memories belong? How might we devise age-appropriate ways of working with an adult client’s child part? Continuing her blog series on energy therapy for dissociative identity disorder, therapist and author Gill Frost describes how she adapted Advanced Integrative Therapy to her client’s six-year-old alter – from agreeing an accessible measure of distress levels to playing a healing game of Simple Simon Says.
4/5: A Baby Part
Published Jan 2022
As we get to know our client’s internal families, we may uncover different relationships and encounter very early parts. In the penultimate blog in her series on energy therapy for dissociative identity disorder, Gill Frost, author of The Girls Within, shares how she worked to heal a distressed baby part – by enlisting the help of another alter whose internal role was to take care of this very traumatised infant.
5/5: An Eight-Year-Old Part
Published Jan 2022
Terrifying dreams are common among clients with dissociative identity disorder, condemning all their internal parts to long, sleepless nights. But to which part do the nightmares belong, and why might this be important to ascertain? In the final part of her series on energy therapy for DID, therapist and author Gill Frost describes how she worked with one client’s eight-year-old alter to free her from her night terrors – and allow each of the client’s parts to sleep in peace.