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Showing posts from November, 2018

The 3 Types of Dissociative Disorders

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By Christine Hammond, MS, LMHC In the middle of a conversation about weekend plans with her husband, Margaret stood up, waved her finger, and angrily yelled at him. Instead of reacting at the moment as he had done in the past, her husband stayed still. About three minutes later, Margaret returned to her seat, appeared calm again, and picked back up on talking about the weekend. If this was the first him Margaret’s husband experienced the event, he might have acted differently. But this time, they were in counseling and their therapist had witnessed the entire thing. After Margaret sat down, the therapist asked her if she remembered standing up and yelling at her husband. Margaret gave everyone a blank stare and just said, “No.” During a dissociative episode, a person experiences a disconnection or detachment from the present moment. It can occur for a split second or last hours depending on the nature of the dissociation. It is a way of escaping reality when the

Emotional Blackmail: A Subtle Abuse

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By Christine Hammond, MS, LMHC As the last of her children left for college, Janet realized she was done with her marriage. She had maintained the image of a “perfect family” for too long. It took her several years to get to this point – including many hours with a counselor – but after all that time she was finally here and ready to move forward into a new phase of life. The emotional, mental, verbal, and financial abuse she endured had taken its’ toll on her and while she was no longer impacted by it daily, she knew did not want to live with it anymore. She, of course, had asked her husband to get help, but he refused. Instead, he only escalated his emotional abuse tactics to include emotional blackmail. The regular, more frequent abuses of name-calling (verbal), gaslighting (mental), and interfering with her success at work (financial) were typical experiences and ones she already knew how to counteract. But the emotional blackmail she was now experiencing was inte

What is Stockholm Syndrome?

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By Christine Hammond, MS, LMHC When Bailey began therapy, she had already convinced herself that she was crazy. In her early 20’s, Bailey was still living at home with her brother and mother. She failed her first semester of college, had regular panic attacks, associated herself with unhealthy people, and was barely holding onto her waitress job. Her father also repeatedly told her that she was the cause of all the drama in the house with her irresponsible behavior and that there was a likelihood that she had a mental illness. She presented in therapy as insecure, scared, hesitant, and withdrawn. After several sessions, a different side of Bailey emerged. The more she felt believed and accepted by her therapist, the better she communicated with them. She began to act confidently at work, opening the possibility for a promotion. She removed the unhealthy friendships and engaged with new people who inspired her to achieve more. Now instead of shutting down at home,