The Hive

Gentle Yoga, Grounding, and Meditation Class by Cynthia Herzog LCSW

Some therapeutic models and religious traditions emphasize forgiveness as a pathway to healing. This workshop will examine some of those models, investigate whether forgiveness models are appropriate for chronic childhood trauma, and consider alternative models that do not place emphasis on forgiveness. Participants will be given the freedom to explore whether forgiving a perpetrator is a goal they wish to set or whether other therapeutic goals are more pressing and conducive to long-term recovery.

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In working with clients with DID, creative out-of-the-box resources often become necessary to help clients ground into the present, contain traumatic material, and learn to communicate effectively within their systems and with us, as therapists. We will share our favorite most creative tools and ideas.

Ever wonder how traumatic experiences alter the body and brain? Epigenetics is one way that external experiences are written into cells and can provide insight into the impact of trauma and mechanisms for healing. From the perspective of a neuroscientist and survivor, this session will explore mechanisms of epigenetics, discuss well-documented epigenetic markers of trauma, and explain how epigenetics both validates traumatic experiences and provides hope for healing. With this information, we can better understand why trauma is so impactful, how healing experiences change the brain in beneficial ways, and how a high adverse childhood experiences score can be overcome.

Drawing on her work with victims and their families at Pulse, Parkland, Surfside, hostage events, and many hurricane , tornado and fire incidents, the presenter will discuss the difference between single episode disasters and long term trauma. Interventions that can help reduce the possibility of long term dissociative and PTSD symptoms after a disaster will be discussed. Part presentation and part dialogue, participants can discuss their own experience witnessing these events via media. We will discuss ways to heal from this witnessing and reduce the numbing and callousness that can occur with the escalating numbers of violent disasters. Due to the nature of the disasters presented, injuries and deaths will inevitably be discussed (but not focused on).

As a survivor of trauma and C-PTSD, my healing journey has taken a circuitous path. Through writing, music, and art, I strive to create a coherent narrative of my life. Building “psycho-structures” enables me to create symbolic representations of the traumas I’ve experienced and to give voice to all parts of my self. My therapist expertly weaves these unique structures into our therapy, helping me to create safe places and to verbalize the unspeakable. During this presentation I will share my story and show how I use my “psycho-structures” to promote healing and reclaim my life.

Survivor, spouse and adult daughter discussing supportive aspects and coping skills for supporters. How to navigate various parts of a system effectively in a positive manner. Qs and As regarding lived experiences of dissociative symptoms...ie amnesia, splitting, how to creatively deal with them. Strategies to help supporters understand their unique roles. What works for us and what doesn't! Discuss scenarios that have been helpful to us with grounding, coconsciousness, blending and integrating parts. Learning to not walk on eggshells when dealing with complex parts and establishing safe boundaries.

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Medical and dental treatment can be extremely difficult for adults with DID. They often avoid treatment, or suffer through it silently. This presentation offers a different approach to receiving the care they need and deserve. Participants will learn how to build a new kind of "toolkit", with useful stabilization techniques, healthy self-care skills, effective methods to communicate with providers, and ideas to adapt treatment procedures that decrease dissociation and discomfort. Treatments discussed will include ER visits, surgeries, and pelvic/prostate exams. Note: descriptions of specific procedures may be triggering; participants need to use wise self-care during the presentation.

No one planned their life with a pandemic in mind, at least I certainly didn’t. This is how I held on to my clients, changed course, created what was needed, and let it all continue to transform. Through this workshop, you might have the chance to participate in a few short “hands-on” activities that have been adapted for an online format including Sound and Movement, and Drama Therapy-fied Sandtray. Or…Something completely different but still with a drama therapy, expressive arts therapy flavor. It all depends on how cooperative the technology is being but either way it will be fun, informative, and engaging.

Sexual functioning is often an area of extreme challenge for those with DID and their partners. Improved sexual functioning is important to increase a sense of bodily agency, to enhance psychological well- being, and to allow full participation in desired adult relationships. This presentation will educate participants on specific strategies to increase sexual functioning and safety for survivors and supporters. These strategies include advanced system mapping strategies for sexual functioning, internal system communication including integration of somatic and sensory awareness and processing, enhanced interpersonal communication strategies for consent in sexual practice, and discussion of partner's specific needs, concerns, and considerations.

Grab your lunch and come join one of our chat and chews. Meet with your fellow attendees to discuss what is on your mind. These are moderated by mental health professionals.

Click the links below to join a Chat & Chew Session:

• Supporters

• People living with dissociation and DID

• Therapists living with dissociation and DID

• Therapists who treat dissociation and DID

Join us for a robust review and discussion of some of the events of the last year and how they can help us all grow, heal and learn. What do racism, misogyny, domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, harassment, climate change, DID, patriarchy, bullying and historical trauma have in common? What are the connections in addressing and healing all of them?

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Dissociation is a brilliant and creative way to survive horrific pain. At age 58 this therapist woke to a dissociative disorder after 25 years in practice. It was after a session with a client that triggered her parts to come forward and seek help. The next 5 years was a journey of healing by learning to co-communicate, cooperate and eventually become co-conscious by mapping the system that protected her from birth. This workshop will focus on the power of embodiment to access parts frozen in time through breathwork and spiritual resourcing, and give a voice to the stories they hold. This workshop will be part didactic and part experiential.

This will be a comedic exploration of D.I.D. lies, myths, denial, and Terrible Ideas about this syndrome, either put out into the world at large or experienced internally. Audience members will be able to write down any whopping D.I.D. 'info' they've heard or experienced, and some of these will be shared. The goal is comradery and fun! Hoping for lots of laughter.

Increased understanding is crucial to mitigating childhood trauma and its lifelong impact, but the awareness of the risk factors and realities of childhood trauma is a work in progress. This means that children who live in traumatogenic realities that aren’t yet seen as such, often have their post-traumatic and dissociative presentation missed, misinterpreted, and misunderstood. One such example is extreme parental conflict, where children are made to give up their attachment to one parent to appease the other, and need to dissociate the parts of themselves who miss and need the parent. These children often end up with clinical presentations that are very similar to those of complex trauma. Other trauma-risk realities include closed communities where there is no language or space for verbalizing wrongs. Developmental and medical issues, too, can make children more susceptible to overwhelm and shutdown, and place them at a high risk for behaviors and reactions being misunderstood. This international panel of clinicians will discuss some less spoken of pathways to childhood trauma and the importance of having ways to understand, describe, and address them. Audience questions and discussion will be welcome.

By learning to love each part of ourselves, we learn to fully love our whole self, and by extension are then able to love others outside ourselves more fully. This process of getting to know and love oneself plays out more theatrically within a system, and its impact on the mental health of the system is equally dramatic. Relationships within the system can take many forms, but each of them has an equal potential to heal. In this talk, we’ll address the many shapes that in-system relationships can take, and our personal experience with healing through loving each other.

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