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This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Arts and Parts

In Arts and Parts sessions, I provide participants with 6 reflective sessions on their “parts”, utilising the IFS modality and incorporating Art Therapy techniques to create visual clues for what was discussed, and to teach and practice regulation techniques that the client could take home with them. To understand this work, it is important to firstly understand the basic principles of each modality.

Source: Good Therapy –

Definition of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) Theory —the idea that individuals cannot be fully understood in isolation from their inner family unit (otherwise known as their parts). This evidence-based approach assumes each individual possesses a variety of sub-personalities, or “parts,” and attempts to get to know each of these parts better to achieve healing. Based on this modality, every part has a story to tell, and its ultimate goal is to protect the person from harm, in the only way it knows how.

This modality enables people to get to know their parts at a deeper level, and to face them without judgement, and encourages clients to show understanding and compassion towards their parts, including their darkest parts. This leads to true self-discovery and self-acceptance, which is needed in the healing process.

The IFS model has 5 basic assumptions:

• The human mind is subdivided into an unknown number of parts.
• Each person has a Self, and the Self should be the chief agent in coordinating the inner family.
• Parts are all beneficial to the individual. There is no such thing as a “bad part.” Therapy aims to help parts discover their non-extreme roles by learning more effective ways of coping, rather than using extreme behaviours. 
• Personal growth and development leads to the development of the internal family. Reorganization, accepting and accommodating for the internal system may lead to rapid changes in the roles of parts. 
• Adjustments made to the internal system will result in changes to the external system.

Definition of Art Therapy — A form of psychotherapy involving the encouragement of free self-expression through painting, drawing, or modelling, used as a remedial or diagnostic activity. Art Therapy enables people to explore their thoughts and emotions in a non-judgemental way and allows room for the person to express their memories, thoughts, feelings, perceptions in healthy ways. Art Therapy allows for vehement emotions, dysregulated patterns and thoughts to be transferred from the brain and the nerves system onto paper, and provides a vessel for the implicit memories and dysfunctional thoughts to become explicit, known and understood. Art Therapy helps with vertical neuron integration of the brain due to its self-regulation qualities. Moreover, Art Therapy taps into the right side of the brain, which helps with horizontal neuron integration that leads to the repairment of trauma induced rupture in the corpus callosum and improves dissociative tendencies. Also, helps bring imagination to life. Art Therapy links the person’s experience with their 5-sense perception, through colours and shapes, which allows for creation of new trigger points and new neuron pathways in the brain.

Sessions:

In sessions, the concept of “parts” is introduced to clients, using life examples. Art Therapy is used to raise mindful awareness, create linkages between concept and 5-sense perception, and allows for information processing to occur in a guided, regulating way. Breath-work is often utilised as participants are encouraged to focus on their internal world, understand what is happening inside, sit with the bodily sensations that may come up in different contexts, frame them as parts, use imagination to describe the colour and the shape that comes to mind in relation to those parts, and to use paint and paper to bring those images to life. This automatically creates a somatic distance between “Self” and the “Part”, which is in the core of IFS therapy.  

Participants are then encouraged to re-frame these parts as protectors and to view them with curiosity, without judgement. Then remind themselves of different situations where these parts have come to save them in real life. Participants are encouraged to reflect on the power held within these protectors and are encouraged to give these parts other sources of regulation to use, or options to choose from, in order to work together with the part to achieve unity and stability for the whole system. Session 5 of this course is a great example of facing the “Addiction Part” that most participants run away from, or hold negative thoughts around. In this session, participants will bring Addiction to life using shapes and colours that they associate with this part, then reflect on ways it has tried to save them in the past and the power that it holds; and then discuss what other strategies the person’s “Self” could offer the “Addiction Part”, so that this powerful part has other strategies to rely on, rather than having to rely on the same maladaptive patterns of the past. Participants are then encouraged to draw these new techniques (ie: going for walks, breathing, grounding etc) around their “Addiction”, so the “Addiction” is more aware of these other strategies and can choose from these options later on. This promotes a sense of partnership between the “Self” and the Part, and creates visual clues for the information that was shared in the session. Client can always reflect back on this work, by viewing their art at home.

Moreover, clients get the chance to experience an effective regulation technique (doing Art), whilst focusing on their parts and they learn to practice this new technique at home.

Author: Nasim Yazdani

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Mr. A. L. has incorporated the Internal Family Systems’ modality with Art Therapy in his personal journey towards healing and recovery.

Following is Mr. A. L.’s personal reflections on his art and recovery journey in his handwriting.

Consent to publish on this website was obtained on 31/10/2022.

Paintings slowly made room for more parts that were still unknown to him. “White” represents the unknown that Mr. A. L. is keen to find out more about during counselling and through psychological assessments.

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What is Omission Trauma

Omission trauma is a type of psychological damage that can be caused by the omission of an event or occurrence from a person’s life. This can lead to a feeling of unresolved pain and grief. The symptoms of this type of psychological damage can be similar to those associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as anxiety, lack of emotion regulation and fear. However, most experts agree that PTSD and omission trauma are different conditions with different causes. Treatment approaches for both conditions however remain quiet similar.

Causes of Omission Trauma

There are many different causes of omission trauma. One of the most common is the death of a loved one, which can lead to complex grief, if not treated. It can also be caused by the loss of a job or a serious illness in someone close to you. These events can have a powerful impact on your life and can cause you to suffer from symptoms similar to PTSD. For example, you may experience feelings of sadness, depression, and anxiety, and you may also experience sleep disturbances and flashbacks to past events in your life.

Another cause of Omission Trauma are the needs of the person, which simply were missed or not met in childhood. As examples, children who were raised with limited emotional attunement, were treated differently to siblings or were encouraged to hide emotions, or children who faced poverty, cultural or systematic discriminations can all suffer from Omission Trauma.  

Omission Trauma is often much harder to pinpoint to a particular incident in life, as it covers the ongoing impact of the needs that were never met.

How Omission Trauma Differs from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

While the causes of these mental health problems are similar, there are some important differences. In particular, the symptoms of PTSD tend to be more severe than those of omission trauma. Some people with PTSD are unable to function normally in their daily lives, but people with symptoms of omission trauma are more likely to return to normal living relatively quickly. In addition, some treatments for PTSD aren’t very effective for people suffering from omission trauma.

Recovery from Omission Trauma and PTSD

Similar to PTSD, treatment for omission trauma usually involves a combination of psychotherapy and at times medication. Medication can help to relieve your symptoms and makes it easier to engage in psychotherapy. It’s important to discuss treatment options with your doctor before making a decision about the treatment that’s best for you. Although many people recover from their symptoms of omission trauma after a period of time, it’s important to continue with your treatment throughout the recovery process to reduce the risk of relapse.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a common type of psychotherapy used to treat patients with symptoms of post-traumatic stress and omission trauma. During CBT sessions, you’ll be encouraged to use healthy coping strategies to manage stress and avoid triggers that may cause you to revert back to negative behaviour patterns. For example, during CBT you may learn techniques to help you cope with anxiety more effectively or develop healthier ways of responding to stressful situations.

Mindfulness Meditation is a specific type of meditation that involves focusing on your breathing as a way to increase awareness and reduce stress. Research has shown that mindfulness meditation can help treat a wide variety of psychological conditions, including anxiety and depression. Many people with symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder find that mindfulness meditation helps reduce their stress levels and improves their overall quality of life.

Hypnosis involves inducing a state of deep relaxation in the patient through the use of direct suggestion and focused attention. It can be used to help people cope with a wide range of conditions, including addiction, depression, and anxiety, which could have been caused by childhood trauma. Recent studies have shown that hypnosis may be an effective treatment for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or omission trauma. Studies have found that patients undergoing hypnosis experience significantly reduced levels of anxiety and negative thinking after each session. Patients also reported feeling less depressed and having greater feelings of general well-being after receiving hypnosis treatment.

Exposure therapy is another common type of psychotherapy used to treat the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The goal of exposure therapy is to help patients identify and overcome any underlying fears or anxieties that they may be experiencing as a result of their traumatic experiences. During an exposure session, the patient is asked to confront the source of his or her fear and engage in an activity that would normally make them anxious. The patient is then given the opportunity to confront the fear in a safe and controlled environment and gradually increase the intensity and duration of each exposure over time. This type of therapy is very effective for PTSD symptoms and allows the client to overcome their fears and return to a normal life. Exposure therapy is not usually used for omission trauma, but there are always exceptions in any situation.

Another form of therapy is the use of EMDR therapy. This is a form of therapy that helps patients deal with the emotional pain caused by a traumatic event, whilst directing the client to raise dual awareness of the event. Clients are then asked to focus on a sliver of the traumatic memory, which often represents the worst image of that particular memory, body sensations and their cognition at the same time, whilst being mindful of their presence in the here and now. Unlike traditional talk therapy, which usually requires the patient to discuss details of their trauma, EMDR therapy does not require the patient to talk excessively about their trauma or discuss their memories in detail. Instead, the therapist simply asks the patient to focus on the worst image within a particular disturbing memory while the therapist uses eye movements, sound or tapping in order to stimulate the brain’s sensory and motor functions, preparing for the memory to be processed. Patients typically report feeling more relaxed and less stressed after undergoing this type of therapy.

To find out more about the above or seek assistance from our staff at Mind Matters Health contact page or reception@mindmattershealth.com.au

co-authors: Nasim Yazdani (Mental Health Therapist) and AJ Missaghi (Chief Technology Officer – Healthcare & Life Sciences APJ – Dell Technology)

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