Now in my 30th year as a therapist, I thought it would be great to reminisce a bit and share some of the highlights in my career. And no, I don’t want to thank my 3^rd grade piano teacher because I didn’t have one. What I will share is my appreciation of the graduate schools, fellow therapists, and field experience that has prepared me to face some of the most difficult challenges one can have in the field of psychology. My 11 years alone at the Mental Health Urgent Care Center in Long Beach California has some juicy experiences to share, but I’d like to start off from the beginning and talk about something that I think about often, that has proven to me that I chose the right university and right out of the gate was able to handle something that only a few therapists have tried their hands in.  

As I dial into 1998, I worked at a residential treatment facility in Northridge California – nestled deep in the San Fernando Valley of the Los Angeles area. Yeah, I was in the boondocks, but for me, I was chomping at the bit to show my newly obtained skills. Little did I know I would be doing so in front of an entire group of seven people.  

At this residential facility, where clients were fed, medicated, and housed, a client approached me and told me they had multiple personalities, that were very active and the other therapists were at a loss on how to treat them. Now, I wasn’t their primary therapist and didn’t have much time to do so but would be willing to help her during the group that I facilitated. 

The evening of the big event had clients off to one side and a series of chairs were placed at the front of the room. Each chair was to represent one of her alters. After I placed six or seven chairs there, she asked to double them. This poor woman had 16 alters! My God! My work was cut out for me.

Like always, I got the group to do a centering process. It is simply to get into a loving space and ask for spiritual assistance. Hey, I was running this from the playbook from the University of Santa Monica and was totally into it.

When dealing with alternate personalities… Well, let me start off this way. A person can fragment their personality by going through extreme abuse when they are very young when the brain hasn’t fully wired. Overall the tone in the room needed to be very calm and caring for this to work out, and it seemed that the whole audience was collectively holding their breath in anticipation.

So, in dealing with alternate personalities, you need to create a main personality that would act like the mediator to each aspect, get them talking about themselves, their purpose, and any hindrances to them changing. Overall the duty is to get each alter personality – one by one to buy into the new system of working together for the good of all concerned.

The client went to task, each alter was up to the challenge and suddenly there was excitement showing up in the client’s face. She was remarkable as she dealt with the most difficult aspects that got their needs met through bullying, fits of anger, and manipulation. These aspects were no joke, told it like it was, but the client was mastering the process in no time at all.

Then came the last aspect, who was a little child. All she did was sit on that chair, hold herself tight, and cry. We all started crying because it was so emotional. Even the youngest of the group wanted to help and promised to be good and work with the team.

The client looked at me with a grin and had gratitude on her face.

“Is there any aspect that is not in alignment?” I asked.

The client looked from chair to chair and had an astonished look on her face.

“Claire!” She exclaimed. “I haven’t addressed Claire.

One more chair was set up and when Claire began to talk, man was she a ball buster! I never knew that a sweet-looking woman could have this bar bitch from within. This alter was cursing, yelling, and carrying on. I just hoped she wouldn’t ruin what took us over an hour to achieve.

“Can you agree to work with us all?” The client asked Claire.

You could have heard a pin drop in the room. A hush fell over the place as we all awaited Claire’s yea or neigh.

“I agree.” Was blurted out.

With that, this quickening of energy went through the entire room causing everyone’s hair to stand on end!

“Did you feel that?” Someone in the room blurted out.

“Did you feel that?” I asked the client.

“I did,” She replied in amazement.

Then she added, “I feel whole,” burst into tears, and gave me a hug. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

The woman was discharged the following day and I never heard from her again. I’ll just take that as good news since she didn’t re-admit.

I want to thank you for reading this account of an actual session. What was used was from NeuroLinguistic Programming’s aspect work. Yes, it is incredible for dealing with inner aspects whether you have multiple personalities or whether one of the common aspects is out of control like: The Critic, The Addict, The Victim, and Self Sabotage to name a few.

Your comments are appreciated.