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The treatment of the DID patient, due principally to its traumatic causation, would be a long drawn-out affair. Its truncated memory system holding often painful emotional and secretive information require patient trust-building and a strong therapeutic alliance between the client and the counsellor, prior to commencing hypnotic or trance therapy.

This will entail a few sessions of orientation on the creation and nature of trauma-related thoughts and its memory coding peculiarities. It would not be unusual for a client to be afraid of the hypnotic process, as the DID person often goes in-and-out of a trance state unknowingly; i.e., without consciously being aware of it, as different personality parts take over the memory system.

A young lady in her early twenties initially reacted with scepticism and fear, when orientation towards her dissociation was first broached. A few of her friends were included in the counselling session at some point, as they explicate how her parts would surface through the week, in their presence, and how she had reacted to her friends under those circumstances.

Some clients would very naturally and willingly dissociate in the first few sessions, and think nothing about it. Nevertheless, orientation would follow, to assist the patients to be aware and come to terms with the presence of alters in their lives as they embrace their malady.

Other clients would already be familiar with what have been happening when they dissociate, and their self-awareness becomes a positive factor in their orientation and subsequent healing process.

One of the biggest hurdles in hypnotic orientation is the ingrained misinformation or ignorance prevalent particularly within Christian circles, where the outcome of the practice of hypnosis is regarded as prejudicing the independence of the client; in the loss of their personal control over their personhood. In some quarters, hypnosis is even regarded as evil. Nothing is further from the truth!

Very simply, hypnosis is an aspect of concentrated thought. Often, when we are lost in worship or prayer, especially when we close our eyes, we venture into a light hypnotic or trance state (c.f., Acts 10:9 – 16; Acts 22:17). We are then totally in a world of our own and unaware of our surroundings.

During hypnotherapy, in my experience with DID clients, they are in total control of their behaviour and decisions, and each personality part is able to refuse to do something if he or she does not accede to a suggestion from the counsellor.

A prevalent alternative treatment strategy has suggested that it is best to leave the dissociated memories undisturbed since the client seemed to be functional in most spheres of life despite their dissociative tendencies when they are under undue stress.

Nowadays, there are psychological dissociative test instruments available to measure the degree of DID impairment in a patient, and it would be prudent to access them in order to chart out a trajectory of treatment that would be best for the client’s healing.

The presence of a suicidal alter would inevitably call for a more comprehensive evaluation, with a sufficiently robust treatment regime.

An outcome that included other differential diagnosis (i.e., with the presence of anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, etc) would also call for a thorough and possibly longer term treatment plan.

The degree of client co-operation during counselling sessions would determine how far should progress for healing take place. When dissociated memories continue to interfere with the everyday functioning of a client to a degree that compromise their mental health, the integration and healing of their memory system becomes an urgent process.

And on that basis, hypnotherapy would benefit the client in the longer term.

About Coram Deo

Coram Deo — before the face of God. This blog reflects on Scripture, world events, science, music, psychology, and the human mind — always through the lens of Christian faith. All of life is lived before the face of God.