Getting Unstuck; Unravelling the Knot of Depression Attention and Trauma

The right-brain emotional self responds to this wave of rejection by dissociating, by splitting off, by creating that barrier to the normal flow of information between selves. The primary effect of this is that any associations that come from the cut-off right-brain part are censored and not allowed into the left-brain consciousness, where they are

People who have social/interpersonal/emotional hyperactivity may suffer from paralyzing shyness and self-consciousness, especially if they are also hyperactive in obsessive or socially phobic brain areas.

Many is the child who acts “like a different person” with each parent. An example is the bilingual child who always seems to speak the right language to the right parent. As the activities and behaviors required of a child multiply, the self becomes further and further differentiated into definable patterns of experience and behavior.

The Watkins define an ego state as “an organized system of behavior and experience whose elements are bound together by some common principle, and which is separated from other such states by a boundary that is more or less permeable.”

dissociation creates dysfunction, we had to go back to the beginning. Think for a moment of small children of two or three and about the delightful combination of unselfconsciousness and rapid learning they possess, of the joyfulness with which they meet the world when they are safe and well-tended. They are the prototype of pure right-brain functi

Even well-functioning people with ADD often feel tremendously indecisive about taking new directions or making life changes. They have had so much difficulty in following through on decisions made in the past that they often become unable to trust themselves enough to move ahead at all. They also often have great difficulty saying no appropriately.

Once we realized that E.’s father needed to actively approve of E.’s efforts, the exercises went very smoothly. It was easy to get the three of them (dad, little E., and E.) together and to ask dad for love and help, which dad willingly gave. E. was then able to wrap up his practice. E. has now retired from the court job, he takes Ritalin occasiona

Once in this state, W. thought about how she felt just before she decided she was going to get a drink, and she thought about making contact with the inner part responsible for that decision. The frustrated, tired, sad part that answered when she called said she was seven years old.

You must, however, spend sufficient time with the child on your own for the techniques to be as effective as possible. The point is to stay with the strong feelings you may encounter instead of running away from them. You want to feel these feelings, to tolerate and focus on them. An overwhelming majority of the time, if you can tolerate the feelin