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The story revealed in the domains expressed above verbally and nonverbally must be understood in terms of the age at the time of the trauma, as well as the milestones met and missed because of trauma and neglect, acute or chronic. Specific developmental milestones will be discussed as they relate to symptoms that the client carries. Like a mosquito frozen in amber, the symptoms are a shrine to the untold unheard story of what happened and didn’t happen, physically and affectively. We can “catch and release” these symptoms without leading the client regarding who did what, specifically, by focusing on the affect and sensations.

Extreme dysregulation associated with accessing infant annihilation terror is a special problem with special solutions. Maintaining dual attention awareness is critical, and ego state work makes it possible, even when “working in the dark” of implicit memory. Once “Baby’s” story has been fully heard and repaired, loyalty to the aggressor has been resolved for once and for all, and the adult self-reclaims the child self in fullness, there is no longer a need for a symptom shrine, and the symptoms can remit.