Dick Schwartz: Trauma and Couples Pt 1

In this talk from June 2018 Dick offers a condensed introduction to how he realised the model; especially how gestalt and family systems informed the early work. He stresses how since there are nothing but good parts there is nothing to fight with (unlike other approaches that talk about "resistance").
He describes how Self was demonstrated to be consistent across many clients and is in everyone, cannot be damaged and knows how to heal.
He critiques aspects of attachment theory that maintain that qualities of Self must be learned from an outside figure and describes how exiles come about, the formation of managers (critics/caretakers/people-pleasers) and explosive/reactive firefighters.
He restates his position that the therapist is a "hope merchant" and describes the phenomena of parts being "frozen in time" and why updating can provide relief.
He then goes on to describe what to do in a first session: look for dangerous firefighters as part of where to start, determining the "critical mass of Self energy", waiting for a response, interviewing protectors and honouring the suicidal part (if present). "Hope is the antidote to suicide".