Internal and External Safety

About the Course:

Victims of organized abuse, in particular mind control and ritual abuse, frequently have deliberately designed personality systems with parts trained to maintain the security of the perpetrator group. Survivors’ physical safety is endangered by parts trained to maintain ongoing contact with perpetrators. I shall discuss the different kinds of access training, with suggestions for preventing and avoiding ongoing access. Survivors are also endangered by parts trained to punish the person for forbidden behavior such as disclosures, so that telling secrets results in decompensation. I shall talk about the structure of the organized personality system, internal hierarchies, the role of punisher parts and their bosses, and ways to prevent or stop symptoms such as emotional flooding, pain, and self-harm which result from punisher parts doing their jobs.

Journal/Publisher:

ISST-D

Publication Date:

October 6, 2017

Author

Alison Miller, PhD

About the Author:

Alison Miller is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She worked for many years in child and youth mental health services, treating children and families. She is the original developer of the Living in Families Effectively (LIFE) Seminars (www.lifeseminars.com), and has co-authored two books on parenting with Dr Allison Rees. Since 1991, Dr Miller has been treating and learning from persons with dissociative disorders, in particular survivors of ritual abuse and mind control, and has developed a protocol for effective treatment.

Recommended For:

This course is recommended for health care professionals, especially psychologists, counselors and social workers who seek knowledge about victims of organized abuse. It is appropriate for all levels of participants’ knowledge.

Course Objectives:

1. Recognize and understand the risk of ongoing or renewed contact with perpetrators for survivors of organized abuse.

2. Explain the structured hierarchical personality system and the role of internal bosses and punisher parts.

3. Identify the difference between spontaneous decompensation and symptoms resulting from internal punishment, and know how to minimize this punishment.