What inspired this book?  

I have worked in community mental health centers for most of my 35+ years as a social worker/therapist, and have discovered that an overwhelming number of those clients have complex childhood trauma and attachment wounds. Many experience life-disruptive dissociation and meet criteria for DID. I am passionate about dispelling myths about this condition which are rampant in the media, in the dominant culture, and unfortunately in many cases, within the professional mental health community itself. Unless the dissociative experiences of these clients are acknowledged, therapeutic treatments are unlikely to be successful.

What audience may benefit from the book? Although there are excellent resources available describing successful treatment modalities for clients with DID, these resources are often inaccessible to social workers and other front line mental health workers who are overworked, underpaid, under-trained, under-supervised, and are subject to vicarious traumatization. My slim 200-page book, besides offering a comprehensive treatment method for working with clients with DID, offers a coherent summary of what we currently know about the effects of trauma, attachment wounds, and memory. This will be helpful to anyone being trained to work directly with clients in need, including social work students and others studying to be therapists, chemical dependency counselors, school counselors and those pursuing other forms of counseling. In addition, I believe that friends and family members of clients with DID will find the book enlightening.

Why is DID often under-diagnosed?  Despite ample evidence to the contrary, there remains a deeply entrenched belief that DID is a rare condition. Consequently, when doing assessments, clinicians do not ask the right questions. Due to the frequency of co-occurring disorders among clients with DID, it is often easier to focus on those conditions than to face the fears that erupt when acknowledging the suffering of early complex trauma and the anxieties often produced when encountering someone with multiple identities. It is also true that clients with DID are understandably reluctant to reveal the reality of their situation unless they feel confident that they will be acknowledged and respected.

What are the key takeaways from the book? 

·      The fragmentation experienced by clients with DID is a result of an elaborately creative process to successfully survive serious childhood trauma.

·      If you’ve known one person with DID, then you’ve known one person with DID. Clients with DID are as different from one another as are clients with other diagnoses.

·      You will never be bored in working with a client with DID.

·      It is a moral imperative for therapists working with clients with DID to be steadfast in working on their own past trauma issues, and to be dedicated to ongoing self-care.

·      It is an honor to be trusted by a client with DID.

·      Healing is possible for clients with DID.

·      Persons with DID may be your neighbors, co-workers or family members.