Therapy comes down to one simple goal: helping patients make friends with their own mind.

I often encouraged my patients to engage in physical exercise during a flashback. By reclaiming the present moment in the body through exercise, my patients became more able to self-titrate exposure to their memories in a safe way. Teaching control and empowerment through the body experience of exercise in the present moment diminished the power of the past abuse in that present moment. Titrating exposure to the trauma in this way doesn’t deny or negate the flashback or its content. It is not telling the alter that the memory isn’t important. It is communicating that the system cannot safely handle the entire memory quite yet.

Over time, it makes the memory more accessible as it becomes less frightening and overwhelming. Learning to deal with one flashback in this way strengthens the system’s ability to deal with others.