ABSTRACT
The greatest obstacle for clients in successfully "repairing" the distress of their trauma-related parts is the automatic, unconscious tendency to blend with the parts and identify with their feelings. Disidentifying from cognitive schemas held by different parts can be equally or more challenging. For some clients, it is difficult to question beliefs that have felt familiar and "true" for many years, even if they can be connected on an intellectual level to parts. There are two steps to the process of helping clients embrace the parts whose defensive responses or ingenious use of them helped them survive. First, they must learn to observe the signs of being blended and learn the skills of unblending. Next, they must access their innate compassion and "feeling for" these young parts, including overcoming conditioned habits of disowning, disparaging, or failing to notice the "not me" parts.
