Plurality / DID
Plurality refers to the creation of a fragmented sense of self, often as the result of extensive and repeated childhood trauma, abuse and neglect.
In the face of unspeakable horror, the mind protects itself the only way it can, by shutting away nearly all awareness, leaving one sliver of the mind to be in control of the body during the abuse. After years of the mind attempting to protect itself from terror, consciousness itself becomes fragmented and separate identities form.
Like branches torn from a sapling and replanted separately, over and over. Consciousness eventually takes the form of a forest rather than a single tree in those people who are plural.
A better metaphor might be more like the secret service protecting the President when he or she is under threat. The group attempts to usher the president away to safety, while individual after individual stay behind to take on the threat so that the main body of people can get the President to safety.
Understanding the Horrors of the Formation of Plurality / DID
Imagine, if you will, a battlefield. It’s night, the only light that illuminates your path ahead comes from the flaming wreckage of ,what was once, your home. In terror, you silently guide your partner and kids between obstacles.
Your youngest child trips and begins to sob - unable to hold back the tears from that terrifying night. You wrap her up in your arms and hold her to your chest shushing her desperately as your eyes dart left and right looking for those soldiers who wish to destroy you and your family. In a panic now, you speed up. You need to get your family to safety and the silence is starting to break apart with the sobs of the children in your care.
“Over there!” a voice yells out of the darkness followed by a laugh that makes you feel sick deep inside. You run. You know they’re coming for you all. You can feel the filth of them behind you.
You turn a corner and come face to face with one of those soldiers - grinning sickly at you and your kids. Terror sinks inside your stomach like a block of ice.
“Run! Get the children to safety!” your partner yells. A guttural scream erupts from somewhere deep within them as they tackle the soldier. The need to save your partner is overridden by a deeper, more primal impulse as you look at the flame-lit terror in the eyes of your children. You pull them to you and you run.
Shame, guilt, terror pulls at you while the screams of your partner recede, drowned out by the sound of running feet behind.
Exhausted, and realising the inevitability of capture and death, you stop, shove the little one you are carrying into your oldest child’s arms. She looks up at you, huge terrified eyes. “Get them to safety. Just keep going. Do not stop, not matter what you hear.” you say to her as you touch her cheek.
“Over here!” you scream as you head off in the other direction, hoping to draw your pursuers away as your children flee to safety.
I have been coaching plural people for the past fifteen years. As a plural person myself, I have a unique insight into the complexities of plurality. My unique approach takes the stigma and pathology out of working with you as a multiple. My approach breaks up the healing journey into a number of mastery stages
Stage 1 - Building Community: Dissociation and the formation of plural identities is one of the most powerful adaptations the human brain is capable of. The bravery, love and self-sacrifice it takes for a part of our mind to break away and take on the abuse we experienced to get the rest of the mind to safety means that we grew up with each of the parts of our mind walled off from each other. Each of our identities have needed to hone their abilties to cope with a world we weren’t supposed to have survived. This creates some pretty extreme peresonalities, and with balance being a priority in such an intense system, its no wonder that we end up with various people who simply DO NOT get along. This inner fighting can create a world of problems and somatic symptoms such as headaches. Stage 1 is all about taking a good hard look at each other, the sacrifices each of us made in order to fully appreciate that each of us gave everything we could to get each other to safety. This rag tag group of people inside me are my inner tribe, my inner family. This stage is all about bring the walls down that separate us, alleviating many of the somatic and dissociative symptoms that plague our days.
I see you.
I see how hard you've had to fight just to get here. The exhaustion. The numbness. The endless inner noise that won’t quiet down, no matter how many times you promise yourself tomorrow will be different.
You’ve survived things most people couldn’t even name. And now you're here — trying to make sense of the pieces, trying to build a life that doesn’t feel like a war every day.
Here’s what I want you to know:
You’re not broken. You’re wounded. And wounds can heal.
Healing trauma isn’t about going back and reliving every horror. Just like you don’t need to revisit the tree you fell out of to heal a broken leg, you don’t need to relive every moment of pain. What you do need is the right environment: safety, nurture, connection. That’s where we begin.
I help people move beyond the story of what happened to them and into the truth of what they lost — safety, joy, trust, autonomy — and then together, we find a path to reclaim it.
The adaptations you made to survive? They weren’t failures. They were brilliant. Protective. Loving. And they tell me just how strong, resourceful, and deeply caring you are.
My job is to help you remember who you were before the world told you otherwise. To guide you back to your body, your voice, your intuition — and eventually, to your joy.
This work is sacred. It’s fierce. And it is absolutely possible.
Hi, I’m Amber - a holistic, integrative therapist based in Australia.
I specialise in trauma, grief, and working with people who feel like their experiences have never quite fit into a box.
I’m a trans, neurodivergent, and plural therapist - and for over 15 years, I’ve been working alongside people navigating complex trauma, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), PTSD, CPTSD, and the tangled aftermath of childhood abuse and neglect. I also work closely with members of the LGBTQIA+ community, neurodiverse folks, and those in the kink community - not just because I understand the landscape, but because I live it too.
My approach is grounded, compassionate, and deeply empowering.
I believe the real work of trauma therapy isn't just talking about what happened - it’s about understanding the wounds those experiences left behind, the losses you’ve carried, and the powerful adaptations you made just to survive.
I integrate a range of evidence-based and somatic modalities, including:
Somatic Experiencing
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)
Trauma-Focused CBT
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
But more than technique, what defines my work is this:
I’m not afraid of the truth. I create space where no story is too heavy, no word too intense. Words like “rape,” “murder,” “abuse,” or “neglect” aren’t too much for me — because I know that truth needs somewhere to land. And once it does, we can begin the real healing.
I believe your body holds deep wisdom.
We work gently to help you feel safe enough to feel again — to reconnect with your emotions, to listen to your instincts, and to stop abandoning the parts of you that were forced into silence. I believe your emotions are ancient teachers. And your symptoms? They’re not signs of failure. They’re signs of brilliance.
My work is spiritual without being prescriptive. Whether you find strength in the universe, a goddess, a higher self, or just your own heart, I support you in reconnecting to that guiding source within.
I walk this path with you not just as a therapist, but as someone who’s walked it too.
I know what it’s like to feel powerless, disconnected, and unsure where to begin. I also know the joy of coming home to yourself — of reclaiming safety, autonomy, and wholeness — and I want that for you too.
