Some advice needed for therapy help

[DocHyder]

Hello, I'm a new member to the forum and I would appreciate some advice on my problem. Please bear with me on the explanation of this for it takes a while to explain it. My wife has PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which is both chronic and acute and has been in an extremely effective therapy program the last three years to recover from it. She is under the guidance and care of ITT, Inc. of Morgantown, WV., Dr. Louis Tinnan. While there for therapy and evaluation she was determined to have separate "parts". These parts she sees in her mind and have different ages, names, appearances and so on. These parts are not hallucinations but are what makes up her personality. This explanation comes from cognitive behavior therapy in psychology as I understand. To explain this, generally speaking, everyone has parts. For example, have your ever got into an argument with yourself over something, say you wanted to buy a candy bar but you argued with yourself whether you should or not. Psychologists say it would be your part concerned with your health argueing with your part involved with pleasure or fun. So you have parts its just that they are very integrated within you so you can't differentiate them. But my wife's parts are not very integrated so they are separate enough for her to see them distinctly. This is very similiar to the person in the movie "Cybil" from a few years back who had something like 14 separate parts. Cybil though had complete split personalities. My wife does not. The problem is this. As part of my wife's therapy she would like a professional artist to draw her parts for her from her descriptions. I believe what we need to do this is a police sketch artist or someone similar. I thought about contacting some of the art departments in the local universities in my area for help from a student but I'm not exacty sure if this would be the best approach. We don't have a lot of extra income right now like a lot of people so we are trying to keep the cost down somehow. Any of your thoughts on this would be appreciated. Please keep your replies serous though. I don't mind answering any questions concerning my wife's therapy or what we are trying to do. Regards, DocHyder.

[Abdul-Aziz]

Your wife's therapist sounds like a Freudian psycho-analyst to me. Your discussion of "parts" seems to correspond to Freud's notion of id, ego, and superego. Have you ever considered regular psychotherapy instead?

[Pete]

I thought about contacting some of the art departments in the local universities in my area for help from a student but I'm not exacty sure if this would be the best approach. We don't have a lot of extra income right now like a lot of people so we are trying to keep the cost down somehow. Any of your thoughts on this would be appreciated. Please keep your replies serous though. I don't mind answering any questions concerning my wife's therapy or what we are trying to do. Regards, DocHyder.

I recommend going with your first idea. Go to a university and ask around. Eplain the problem. You'd be surprised at how many really nice people there are in the world who just want to help others.