Olivia Djouadi UKCP
3:00 PM-3:50 PM
Friday, June 24, 2022
When being in a cult or influential group the decisions may have been from the group leader or leaders rather than rules followed by others. Even when the police or government needed to be contacted over a car accident or getting benefits people in the group may have been coached in what to say. It may have decisions made by the leader on what to wear and even how much eye contact to be made. When a person has escaped a cult or influential group, they may hold a lot of terror in talking to authority figures such as police, lawyers and people who work for the government. This means they may continue to stay in hiding and avoid any contact with those that could help. It can also mean that when they are ready to talk to officials about what happened that too much time would have passed due to legal time limits and years later evidence would not be available even though the body and mind holds all the truths. People may already have multiplicity or dissociative identity disorder going into a cult or group so the truth and varied fears may be held by different parts or people. They may have been in one cult before adulthood that was abusive so dissociation occurred then be persuaded into a different cult or influential group in their adult years. As clinicians what can we do to assist and what might the person with DID try to help stabilize things.
Olivia Djouadi UKCP
Psychotherapy
The Clinic of Dissociative Studies
Olivia is based in the UK and has spoken at ICSA events previously as well as other conferences. She works as a psychotherapist in private practice and as a clinician at the Clinic for Dissociative Studies based in London. She has worked in the field for 12 years and plans to for many more as I have seen the growth in those I have worked with over the years. In previous years, she worked online as a support person to those with special needs and also those with dissociative disorders. In the past she volunteered with refugees and those who found themselves homeless in London. Having worked with special needs children then assisting their parents in coming to terms with uncertainty. She’s knowledgeable about short-term and long-term disabilities having been a type 1 diabetic for almost 50 years. She understood that many have been affected by the pandemic either themselves or those that cared for them like carers or staff. In the past she worked as a psychotherapist at a cancer centre, with patients who were terminally ill and those that needed support as they were dying of other conditions in a holistic way. She then went on to work with those with complex childhoods, dissociation including DID, long term mental health conditions and other conditions. I now work as a tutor teaching both counselling and supervision online. Most recently I worked as a support person in the RAFA (Royal Air Force Association) Prior to starting her career in psychotherapy she also experienced harm from two very different coercive groups in childhood and later as an adult so has lived experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment