{"id":2700,"date":"2011-09-08T21:56:42","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T02:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/?p=2700"},"modified":"2011-09-08T21:56:42","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T02:56:42","slug":"karen-answers-whitney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/?p=2700","title":{"rendered":"Karen answers Whitney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comment by Whitney on 28 Mar 2011 at 6:35 am<\/em><\/p>\n

Ms. Karen,<\/p>\n

Hello! I am a Masters in Community Counseling student at George Mason University. We were assigned to read a memoir or true story regarding someone\u2019s struggle with a mental disorder or illness.<\/p>\n

Your book struck me. It was beautiful, filled with hope, and painful to read. My heart goes out to you for what you have experienced and how strong you are to work towards overcoming it all.<\/p>\n

My question is- what type of \u201cthings\u201d do you think those up-and-coming in the therapy profession would know\/do differently when working with someone who has DID\/ Multiple personalities?<\/p>\n

Thanks so much! I am looking forward to sharing your story with my classmates.<\/p>\n

Whitney<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dear Whitney,<\/p>\n

Thank you for your kind and heartfelt thoughts and compliments! I’m touched to know my story made a difference to you. It’s my desire to encourage hope through sharing my story. If I’m able to help in the smallest way, I will. There have been times during my therapy years when I wished to gain knowledge and understanding of why I felt the way I did. I was fortunate to have Dr. Baer’s confidence in treating me and his wholehearted and unconditional care. We made a great team, and it most certainly was teamwork at it’s best.<\/p>\n

To answer the second part of your question I would say as a new therapist you should strive to be consistent, take your time, set clear boundaries, especially with touch. Dr. Baer learned a lot as my therapy progressed. \u00a0You will learn as you go…each person is unique. In my opinion, all relationships must be treated with compassion, respect, and safety. Reality may appear different for a multiple, but in the end, reality is simply shedding old false beliefs and being realistic.<\/p>\n

During my therapy, the one thing I would fantasize I would change was not being hugged by Dr. Baer. The lack of a hug caused me unnecessary grief. There was a time when I felt un-worthy, disgusting, and my self-esteem felt contaminated. I had never been hugged by my father or mother. I felt ashamed for wanting and needing to be hugged. But I learned that Dr. Baer’s not hugging me was more about him than me, and more about my alters’ needs for discipline and growth. It was all about being consistent and setting boundaries. I accepted and respected Dr. Baer for sticking to his principles. That’s how I came to learn trust.<\/p>\n

I believe it’s best not to repeatedly hug, but I see no reason to withhold an occasional safe hug. We are all human, right? Than again, I’m not therapist. In my opinion, there needs to be mutual agreement and only the therapist and patient can decide what’s best for both. With me and Dr, Baer, there was no hug until the end. That worked for us. We built a trustworthy relationship.<\/p>\n

Wishing you all my best on your Master’s. I would love to hear how sharing my story with your classmates goes!<\/p>\n

Karen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comment by Whitney on 28 Mar 2011 at 6:35 am Ms. Karen, Hello! I am a Masters in Community Counseling student at George Mason University. We were assigned to read a memoir or true story regarding someone\u2019s struggle with a mental disorder or illness. Your book struck me. It was beautiful, filled with hope, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2701,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions\/2701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}