Workshop Description:

In an abusive childhood environment, it is dangerous to be seen. Being “seen but not heard” is often not sufficient to reduce the dangers posed by abusive attachment figures. The less visible the child is, the better. To avoid being seen requires that children be silent, still, quiet, and fade into the background. Years later, the client comes to us for help suffering from fears of being visible or from the effects of being able to have a voice or a presence. Often, there is an inner conflict: part of the client would like to be visible at long last, and part of the client is afraid to be seen.

To resolve this inner struggle, the Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment or TIST model provides a way to validate both sides. When we help clients to notice the fear of visibility as belonging to a young child in an unsafe world, they begin to feel empathy for that part. They can see the longing for visibility as that of a part that yearned to be noticed and delighted in. As they learn to relate to these parts as children, they can reclaim their voices and their presence in the world unhindered by the feeling memories of those young children of long ago.

‍

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the relationship between childhood trauma and fear of being visible.

2. Recognize signs of parts that fear visibility and parts who yearn to be seen.

3. Increase client ability to feel compassion for the parts.

4. Describe interventions that address the fear of being seen and the wish to be seen.