Progress on the Dissociative Initiative!

We had a fantastic meet up today!

To catch anyone up who isn’t aware of what the Dissociative Initiative is (for those of you who’ve just tuned in…) I’ve been working for the past couple of years with some colleagues in a small community group. We’re now in the process of incorporating into a not for profit, national organisation. You can read more about the DI here.

The agenda was getting everyone together to assess the draft of the constitution and work on it, to plan for the board and talk about what a board is, and what being on one involves. A lot of this process was about translating the incomprehensible language in which constitutions are written into something we could understand so that it was actually possible to have an opinion about it. So, here’s Draft 3, please feel welcome to read it and offer any feedback!

We plan to meet up again within the week to finalise the constitution and vote in the first board. I am so excited! We’re particularly looking at the following areas (for those who want to spare themselves reading the whole gibberish-y document):

2.15        “Dissociation” means a disconnection in areas of psychological functions which would normally be connected such as memory, time, senses which may or may not be distressing or disabling, but which impact on a person’s experience of the world.

2.16       “Multiplicity” means experiencing dissociative barriers between parts of self, occurring on a spectrum of degree, which may be experienced for example as voices, alters, lost time, a sense of being fractured or divided.

2.17       “Parts” may also be known as “alters”, have a separate sense of self and function independently within the one body, switching with or without amnesia.

2.18       “Voices” can be understood within the context of multiplicity as parts who speak to each other. Not all voices fit within the framework of multiplicity, some voices can be parts who also switch

2.19        “Peer Worker or Peer” means a person who, working collaboratively with a person who is experiencing mental illness, intentionally uses their own personal Lived Experience of mental illness to support rehabilitation and recovery goals; and or, a person who uses their Lived Experience in a formal role associated with policy development, research and or systemic advocacy.

Query the need to reword to include the 4 group values overtly (Safety, acceptance, respect, recovery) Recovery is included overtly, Safety can easily be added to 4.1.1 avoiding re-traumatising practices, acceptance to the 4.4 social inclusion aspect

Expand/clarify: 4.7 Diversity of the experience and meaning people ascribe to events and opportunities

Query grammar for 6.6 To directly address the disadvantage and distress experienced by those who live with dissociation and/or multiplicity, and their effects on health and social inclusion.

Any thoughts you have will be very welcome, please contact me. 🙂 And watch this space!

I appreciate hearing from you


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