"I was absolutely frightened as I approached the therapist's office for the first time. It was a large office building with a fairly clinical atmosphere. . .
"I sat on a comfortable chair facing the therapist, and he sat on another comfortable chair facing me. He asked me if I was okay with him video-taping our sessions. . . I didn't have a fear of being recorded, so I consented.
"He asked me to close my eyes and look inside of myself. This was how the first therapy session began and it was typical of sessions thereafter. When I looked inside of myself, I would often see the vivid image of a child. When I let the child speak out loud, she (or he) would tell the therapist about an abuse that had happened, and the therapist would hear the voice and vocabulary of a child.
"Later, I was able to watch the tapes of my sessions. I was surprised when a different voice, clearly a child's voice, would come out of me. I also realized through watching the tapes, that I had different mannerisms and behaviors for each of the different personalities that came out, and that the vocal qualities and expressions were different for each.
"It was interesting to me that it was all so consistent. When a specific child part came onto the screen, I could see and hear myself use a particular tone of voice, use particular mannerisms, and age-appropriate vocabulary. I would then switch, and different 'people' would emerge. I might switch back to the original child part and the voice quality and mannerisms were completely consistent with how that child part had been previously.
"I was amazed at how quickly the child parts were wiling to let me know they were there and how willing some of them were to explain what happened to them." (My Tears Fall Inside, page 55)
It was amazing to me that even if a particular child part hadn't spoken to the therapist for several weeks, when she talked to him again, her tone of voice, mannerisms and vocabulary were totally consistent with what they were several weeks previously. Being able to observe this consistency by replaying a video of earlier sessions made it harder for me to deny the reality of the parts, much to my chagrin at the time.
"I sat on a comfortable chair facing the therapist, and he sat on another comfortable chair facing me. He asked me if I was okay with him video-taping our sessions. . . I didn't have a fear of being recorded, so I consented.
"He asked me to close my eyes and look inside of myself. This was how the first therapy session began and it was typical of sessions thereafter. When I looked inside of myself, I would often see the vivid image of a child. When I let the child speak out loud, she (or he) would tell the therapist about an abuse that had happened, and the therapist would hear the voice and vocabulary of a child.
"Later, I was able to watch the tapes of my sessions. I was surprised when a different voice, clearly a child's voice, would come out of me. I also realized through watching the tapes, that I had different mannerisms and behaviors for each of the different personalities that came out, and that the vocal qualities and expressions were different for each.
"It was interesting to me that it was all so consistent. When a specific child part came onto the screen, I could see and hear myself use a particular tone of voice, use particular mannerisms, and age-appropriate vocabulary. I would then switch, and different 'people' would emerge. I might switch back to the original child part and the voice quality and mannerisms were completely consistent with how that child part had been previously.
"I was amazed at how quickly the child parts were wiling to let me know they were there and how willing some of them were to explain what happened to them." (My Tears Fall Inside, page 55)
It was amazing to me that even if a particular child part hadn't spoken to the therapist for several weeks, when she talked to him again, her tone of voice, mannerisms and vocabulary were totally consistent with what they were several weeks previously. Being able to observe this consistency by replaying a video of earlier sessions made it harder for me to deny the reality of the parts, much to my chagrin at the time.
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