Phase Orientation Treatment Approach

After a person with DID is hospitalized or reports to therapy, clinicians or therapist’s needs to work on assessment/diagnosis and eventually treatment. The type of treatment that used for DID differs from one therapist to another, however, the goals of treatment remains the same, which is integration of all alternate personalities and strengthening the host character. Research has shown that there is a pattern in the way in which clinicians or professionals approaches treatment of DID. A model that is consistent with this pattern is the Phase Orientation Treatment Approach, which has three treatment stages. This approach deals with trauma related disorders, including DID. The same approach will be taken to illustrate how to treat DID and specifically
The therapist’s role would be to educate the patient about their difficulties and the process of treatment. It is most common that when a patient reports to therapy, they are likely to be suicidal, depressed, to suffer from anxiety, amnesia and or other symptoms, the therapist initial role would be to address these behaviours and any other behaviours that may be harmful to the patients psychical and or psychological safety. The clinician or therapist could prescribe medication to the patient/client to help reduce symptoms, such as headache and insomnia. It is essential to note, however, that “…this phase of treatment prioritize skill building in emotion awareness and regulation, impulse control, interpersonal effectiveness, grounding, and containment of intrusive material” (Brand, Loewenstein, Spiegel, 2014, p. 172). During this stage, the therapist also works with the patient to install new skills that teaches them new ways to cope with the alternate personalities, inevitable symptoms and to prevent high-risk behaviour such as dangerousness to self and/or others (Brand, Loewenstein, Spiegel, 2014). In the case of Rose, the therapist would teach Rose ways to cope with stress, teach her how to trust others and work with her
At this stage, the therapist works towards uncovering the traumatic memories that the patient/client has experienced, these traumatic memories are believed to be the cause of the development of different identities within the patient. Therapists or clinicians use psychotherapy to uncover these memories. Psychotherapy is defined by de Rivera (1992) as “an interpersonal relationship, that is aimed to make the patient or client better… certain techniques or principles must be followed” (de Rivera,1992, pg.51). The most commonly used psychotherapies for treating DID are Psychoanalytic therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It is important to understand that there are a whole lot of psychotherapies that could be used during stage, in isolation or combination, but they all aim at uncovering traumatic memories (Cath, 2014). During this second stage of treatment, clinicians or therapist gets meet other alternate personalities; observe their roles, their strengths and weaknesses. The therapist’s aim here is to get to know some experiences that the host cannot remember or is not aware of and to identify the effects these memories have on the host’s