Ask the Author: Alison Miller
Answered Questions (14)
Alison Miller
I don't have a talk specifically on that topic. I think that I briefly talked about how to work through infant memories within the talk on memory work. Older parts of the person can assist the infant parts to bring forward their memories, which will consist of sensory and emotional experiences which the infant parts can't put into words.
Alison Miller
I was saying that flashbacks from one particular memory will never occur again if that memory has been thoroughly worked through with all the dissociated parts of the person who participated in that memory have shared their parts of the memory with one another. I was not saying that the whole person will never have flashbacks again, or will be completely healed. Healing from extreme and prolonged abuse is an extreme and prolonged process. I was speaking only about what happens if you work through one particular memory thoroughly.
Alison Miller
That's a secret until it is published.
Alison Miller
I can say what I want, and take the time to think about it and phrase it the way I want. I don't have to go through the peer review process that I do with academic articles.
I hope sometime soon I get the time to write fiction and other such kinds of literature.
I hope sometime soon I get the time to write fiction and other such kinds of literature.
Alison Miller
I play video games in between spurts of writing.
Alison Miller
With my books on mind control and ritual abuse, I saw a huge gap in what was available for therapists and for survivors of these abuses. I felt someone had to fill that gap, so I wrote those books.
With my books on parenting, they started out as courses, in which I translated material which was only available in academic or therapeutic jargon into everyday language. It seemed a natural transition to publish this material as books, along with my colleague Allison Rees.
I have had other books on the back burner for a long time, and it seems I never get to them because these areas are too pressing.
With my books on parenting, they started out as courses, in which I translated material which was only available in academic or therapeutic jargon into everyday language. It seemed a natural transition to publish this material as books, along with my colleague Allison Rees.
I have had other books on the back burner for a long time, and it seems I never get to them because these areas are too pressing.
Alison Miller
I wrote a book for therapists dealing with survivors of mind control and ritual abuse, and told survivors in the introduction not to read it. Survivors were indignant that I had said this. So I wrote a parallel book for them.
Alison Miller
I'm sorry, I don't know a book for partners of survivors. There is an organization called RAINS in the UK which links therapists and survivors; I"m not sure whether they also include partners.
Alison Miller
Sorry, I can't think of any favorite fictional couple. I guess I don't read about couples.
Alison Miller
I do not recommend specific therapists. My book "Becoming Yourself" is for survivors. You need to find a local therapist who has a good reputation, and give him or her my book for therapists, "Healing the Unimaginable."
Alison Miller
There is no specific protocol for this in EMDR. Those of us who use EMDR tend to use ongoing bilateral stimulation, e.g. with the tactile probes during memory work, but the work with the personality system does better without EMDR. Sometimes the perpetrators use EMDR-like things, e.g. metronomes, so you have to be careful it is not triggering. There is a special interest group for those treating survivors within the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
Alison Miller
Wendy Hoffman will be speaking at this year's Survivorship conference. She is also the moderator of the discussion board at Survivorship, so you can find her there.
Alison Miller
It is more the understanding of what this abuse is about that therapists have had to study in private, not the techniques we use. There are many tried and proven trauma therapy techniques which are effective with such survivors, such as EMDR and fractionated abreaction. As we share information with one another, we are gaining understanding of these abuses. As we gain understanding of dissociative disorders, we learn how to work with complex personality systems. The Top DD study is assessing the effectiveness of such work.
Pretty well all sound schools of therapy teach us not to use suggestive techniques, so we work with what our clients provide to us; we don't tell them what they have experienced. It is up to the survivor or client to determine whether what is coming into his or her mind is real, not up to the therapist.
Pretty well all sound schools of therapy teach us not to use suggestive techniques, so we work with what our clients provide to us; we don't tell them what they have experienced. It is up to the survivor or client to determine whether what is coming into his or her mind is real, not up to the therapist.
Alison Miller
I was upset by the poor index, and sent the publisher all the terms I wanted in the index for the next printing. I think it should be out by now.
I don't have enough experience with cult abuse which does not begin in childhood. I don't even know whether it exists.
I don't have enough experience with cult abuse which does not begin in childhood. I don't even know whether it exists.
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