Hypnotic Attachment Repair & EST

Service Description

Ego State Therapy is a treatment of choice when working with a range of dissociative disorders. As disruptions in attachment often underlie developmental trauma and dissociative disorders, repair of these attachment disruptions facilitates modification of early internal working models and facilitates mental organization. However, these internal working attachment models reside in the implicit memory system and are not consciously accessible or modifiable. Consequently, specialized techniques for generating reparative experiences are needed to reach the implicit memory and create new positive associations. The Ideal Parent Figure protocol Brown and Elliott (2016) developed is an evidence-based method for adult attachment repair. However, individuals with significant histories of neglect and abuse often have attachment phobias that complicate the application of the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol. In addition, individuals with traumatized and conflicting self-states often require individualized and paced exposure to secure attachment figures. This workshop will delineate the application of the Ideal Parent Figure protocol in a hypnotic or non-hypnotic context nuanced to the needs for pacing and introduction to newly emerging and distressed self-states. In this regard, the use of the displacement technique as well as utilizing non-parent experiences that occur in safe-place scenes to facilitate acceptance of unfamiliar states of interpersonal security, will be reviewed. In addition, strategies for preparing clients for the use of the ideal parent figure protocol, along with managing various initial and subsequent reactions to attachment repair, will also be addressed. The workshop will include didactic presentations, demonstrations, and the provision of specific wording to facilitate appropriate felt-sense experiences capable of modifying implicit memories of internal working models.