The mosaic mind

by Regina A. Goulding

As a window into the human psyche, the authors use one abuse survivor's extraordinary journal entries, in which her inner dialogues are dramatically revealed. This survivor (a legal client of the first author and a therapy client of the second author) takes the reader on a remarkable odyssey. Her narrative brings the IFS model to life. Reading her story we learn how the human psyche overcomes even the most severe traumas and emotional injuries. From the IFS perspective, the survivor's symptoms - the inability to trust anyone, the compulsive self-soothing or self-punishment, the pervasive sense of shame and badness, the hidden rage - are all seen not as symptoms of psychopathology, but as heroic efforts by warring sub-personalities to protect the core Self from the destructive effects of the abuse. The authors provide guidelines for accessing this core Self, undamaged in even the most severely abused individuals. With the Self in the lead, survivors can release their parts from extreme