Yin Yang Kitty Therapy

Yes, @Rosie_Scope, it was not just about having fun, but about providing various ways for the parts to express themselves. As you know, a lot of what we experience (especially as children) is nonverbal. Also you might know that putting trauma to words can sometimes be re-traumatising. I honestly don't know how I made it through those years. It was horrifically stressful so I was in and out of psychosis. After coming out to friends and family, between 1994 and 1995 I set up six legal proceedings against my abusers. Any therapy up until 2012 was just band-aid crisis management - to keep me from offing myself and out of psychosis.

Anyway.... Like you were saying, in my experience too, compassion for the parts is key in this work. That's what I love about Richard Schwartz's approach - he's very compassionate, even saying he's never met a part he didn't like. 🥰 Patience is another. Kindness another. Listening skills is another. Open-mindedness is another. And this way of approaching my own parts spills over to healthy connections with other people. Does any of that resonate with you?

Yes, definitely I feel like I can relate to others the more parts I understand within myself, if that's what you mean.

You know, this year I've been reading and listening a lot to Maya Angelou, who was a famous civil rights leader. She's an incredible speaker and writer. She melts my soul and heart. Having just finished one of her books of poetry called 'Amazing Peace', I have selected one of the poems in that book as my theme poem for this IFS work. Here she is reciting the poem with a little intro before. Maybe this speaks to you too?

Beautiful indeed. I'm so crushed, done, finito. So to breathe her in is like breathing in life itself. We're so lucky to live in a time where we have easy access to so many people, including this forum. There is only a small part of me left. But I've risen before when there was even less of me and when my situation was even more impossible than now. Hopefully I still have it in me.

Did you know serious childhood trauma can knock up to 20 years off your life? So that could mean only another 3 years for me. I just found that out last year. Truth be told, it's the foundation of my hope now, because the finish line is closer. So I think I can muster up the energy if it's only likely to be 3 years more. A shorter lifespan is the only truly fair thing that has happened to me in my life.

Thank you @Rosie_Scope. I hope you find peace too. I really do. ❤️ Maybe you're not concerned that your illness and trauma may shorten your lifespan. Or maybe you've always known. Or maybe it's not expected to be shortened. It just never occurred to me. But, yes, it makes perfect sense.

Thank you for saying you like my writing. No, I don't journal anymore. The forum is my method of journalling. I love writing with people here. It's like we're all writing a book together.

You know, I started with a little fun by making a playlist of songs and poems that make me think of topics in IFS. One topic is the different parts. So here are two of the videos in my playlist that show many people, and I imagine them to be my different parts. I don't mean this literally. It's just figuratively, to open up my thinking and feeling pathways to the idea of separate parts within. The first is the opening scene to Romeo and Juliet. The second is the song 'Say Something I'm Giving Up on You' by Cristina Aguilera.

@Rosie_Scope, my apologies if my questions to you were inappropriate. 🙏🏼

Well I'm on schedule, having now finished Chapter 2 of the IFS book. Yay! Very pleased to report that. This week I decided that I would include the work I did about parts on my own which I finished in 2012. I think that is why I have not been able to get into the book until now, that these parts were trying to come out, as well as the fact that I wasn't addressing my suicidal part. So now I feel like we're all on board, and things are ticking along. It's been a very, very intense week pulling up all this previous work, but sometimes no pain no gain, right? I've used a lot of grounding techniques and calming techniques in order to get through this work, but at the end of the day I'm very pleased with the results.

This week's work was a continuation of last week's 2nd exercise in exercise one, and an IFS session with his client Sam. Richard Schwartz went deeper into the theory behind IFS. In fact, it is really fascinating IMO. Absolutely fascinating. The work that I did in the past was so unstructured because I was doing it on my own, making it up as I was going along. So really I was just flailing about most of the time. But that was crucial work to add now to the IFS framework. And I'm actually getting pretty excited thinking just maybe I can glue myself together a little bit. 

So with all the past parts and new parts coming out of the shadows, I think the song and video 'Wind Beneath My Wings' by Bette Midler is quite fitting.

I made this collage (not part of the book work) with collage software. This is called 'Shadow Work' to represent this week's work. The picture I found on Pinterest and then edited. Then I added the words. The bottom right box is the file name, my initials and the date I created it.

Well I hope you found that helpful in some way. Thanks for listening. 🙏🏼