1st Edition
Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder A Guidebook for Survivors and Practitioners
This accessible guidebook has been created to be used alongside the picture book, Our House: Making Sense of Dissociative Identity Disorder, as a broad introduction to childhood trauma and its legacies, with a focus on dissociation and DID.
This clear and easy-to-read resource offers an insight into trauma, its continuing effects and the continuum of dissociation. Practical exercises and opportunities for reflective discussion are included throughout to encourage personal engagement either individually or through treatment. Written with clinical accuracy, warmth and compassion, it will expand the reader’s knowledge of DID and deepen the understanding, application and usefulness of the picture book.
Key features include:
- Photocopiable and downloadable resources and activities designed to develop a richer and more personal understanding of the development of DID
- A page-by-page insight into images from the picture book
- Further reading suggestions and information about treatment and support for survivors, as well as for the family, friends and professionals who journey with them
Bringing clarity to a complex issue, this is an invaluable resource for survivors of trauma and for those who support them, counsellors, psychologists, social care workers and other professionals, as well as family and friends.
Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 What is Trauma? Chapter 2 Dissociation – a Continuum Chapter 3 Treatment Chapter 4 Supporting Practitioners Chapter 5 Supporting Recovery Chapter 6 Reading Deeper Chapter 7 Additional Resources Glossary of Terms
Biography
Lindsay Schofield is a Consultant Psychotherapist with a private practice in Surrey, England. She has worked in private practice for two decades, providing treatment and support to individuals and couples, helping them with a wide range of emotional and mental health challenges. A specialist in trauma and dissociation, she has dedicated thousands of hours to learning about working with survivors of complex trauma. With a strongly relational and collaborative approach, the Picture book and Guidebook were born out of desire to make the complex clear and bridge divides wrought by traumatic experiences and misunderstanding. Lindsay has written and delivered her own workshops in the UK and internationally, and provides supervision to practitioners working in different contexts, clinical and pastoral. She is accredited with the BABCP, the BACP (Senior), the ACC (Supervisor), the NCS (Senior/Supervisor) and the NCP (Senior). In her spare time, she enjoys a menagerie of animals and nature.
Cassie Herschel-Shorland is a freelance designer, illustrator, and artist. She works predominantly on increasing access to the diverse history of places, objects, and people’s associated stories. As an active tutor Cassie is also passionate about supporting mental health and wellbeing through creative workshops often in museums, galleries, or libraries; encouraging people to explore and illustrate their own stories.
Cassie has BA(Hons) in 3D design, post graduate certificate in illustration and a Master of Arts in historical illustration. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Lindsay’s wealth of experience, understanding and knowledge in this field - coupled with her gift and passion for educating others - makes this a book not to be missed by anyone with an interest in trauma and DID. Therapists embarking on work with clients in this field will find this a useful tool to add to their kit. Those with DID, along with their partners and friends will find this both reassuring, hopeful and wonderfully informative.
Jennifer and Parts
An encyclopaedic gift to clinicians; an empowering tribute to survivors and a generous guidebook to all those who love and support them. This essential guide offers a rich tapestry of information, traversing trauma’s challenging landscape in a narrative that is relational, accessible, and expansive. It is instructive, illuminatory, and exploratory, a testament to humankind’s capacity for courage and resilience in the face of depravity and heinousness. We applaud the author in her phenomenal achievement of disentangling the complex web of dissociative disorders and thank her for her dedication to the field.
Michele and Parts
Well done to Lindsay Schofield for providing such a thoughtful, rigorous overview of key aspects of diagnosis, treatment and everyday life and aspirations. It provides a substantial companionship to the Picture Book but is also valid in its own right. Her tone is respectful and deshaming and helpful for survivors, survivor-professionals and clinical teams.
Dr Valerie Sinason, Poet, writer and retired child psychotherapist and adult psychoanalyst. Founder Patron of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies and President of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Disability; 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award ISSTD
This guidebook around DID and its companion picture book provide a rare insightful and yet accessible set of resources. They should go a long way towards demystifying DID, addressing some of the common misconceptions, and offering hope and support to those impacted, as well as those walking alongside them.
Dr Cathy Kezelman AM, President Blue Knot Foundation – National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma; lived experience survivor
Wow, this book is awesome! Very impressive. Lindsay has condensed the current knowledge in this field into a comprehensive and clear guide for people who are seeking to heal from trauma of all kinds. What a phenomenal resource!
Dr Lynette Danylchuk, Past President ISSTD, 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award ISSTD
This wonderful book presents trauma science in a thorough and thoughtful way that is accessible to survivors, practitioners and allies. Lindsay imbues this resource with clinical wisdom and compassion that will empower survivors to understand complex trauma and dissociation, and guide both survivors and practitioners towards the goals of wellbeing and safety.
Dr Michael Salter, Scientia Associate Professor of Criminology, Postgraduate Coordinator UNSW Australia
This is a rich, practical, comprehensive and succinct resource gem that combines readable and understandable guidance for clinicians, clients, and their supporters about child & adult dissociation! It is a must read for all who come in contact with those with dissociation!
Frances S. Waters, Author of Healing the Fractured Child: Diagnosis and Treatment of Youth with Dissociation, past president of ISSTD, & Chair of ISSTD Faculty Director of Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy, Training
This book, beautifully written by Lindsay Schofield and beautifully illustrated by Cassie Herschel-Shorland, is for people with dissociative disorders, especially DID, and those who are aiming to help and support them. It is easy to read and yet provides in-depth and well-informed information and signposting to more technical material. It won’t tell you how to do therapy if you are a therapist, but it will set you on the path. I really like the way it addresses everyone, therapists and clients and families and friends alike, as people interacting with DID and related problems.
The book provides a nice introduction to trauma, its effects and hope for healing, as well as how it leads to dissociation in varying degrees. It provides an overview of assessment, conditions and treatment models. A chapter for survivors is written in accessible language and includes a checklist to use when seeking help from professionals, along with handling flashbacks and grounding. A chapter for practitioners gives advice on tools and self-care. The guidebook moves on to reflect and comment on the sister book "Our House-Making Sense of Dissociative Disorder, showing survivors how to use the book and offering more resources.
This book will make a difference in our field, making the mysterious accessible for everyone.
Dr Fiona Kennedy, Director, GreenWood Mentors Ltd. BA (Hons) M Clin Psych D Clin CPsychol AFBPS CPsychol, Fellow BABCP
The concept of a picture book and accompanying guidebook is novel in the treatment of DID, providing a road map that is easy to navigate and a landscape that is well defined and refreshingly clear. Both books empower survivors, inform and reassure practitioners, whist gently supporting loved ones. The books are meteoric in their achievement, a timely and imperative gift to the field of complex trauma and worthy of prime space in every therapy room.
Michele Leslie Jowett, ESTD Newsletter, December 2021
