TACS: Task Three: Gain Permission to Access the Wounded Part

Task Three: Gain Permission to Access the Wounded PartIn this task, we will use the trust and rapport we've been developing to gain the cooperation of the parts involved in your well-formed outcome goal. Since the protector parts are, in psychoanalytic terms, defense mechanisms, they cannot do anything but what they were created to do. That is, defend and protect the current survival system. If we ignore these managing parts plowing forward to make changes to your survival system, we are asking for and creating unnecessary resistance. Indeed, even in the best of circumstances, we will encounter resistance. But it won't be unnecessary in those cases. It will be in the form of concerns or objections by parts that we've already taken the time to get to know.We will need to negotiate with each of these managing parts to help them see that there's nothing to defend against in the healing process. When each part sees that the TIFS/TACS process is a solution and not a threat, they will be able to stop defending and stand aside. In this way, the defense mechanisms can adopt an observer role in the background and be on standby ready to defend if things go wrong.We need to help them find a reason to stand aside so we can gain uninterrupted access to the wounded parts to help them heal. The easiest way to do this is to help each of the managers see that the reason for which they were modified will be healed, rendering their defensive strategy no longer necessary. This could create an objection or concern by the part that they will cease to exist because they are now essentially out of a job. Yes, even parts have their own survival strategies and self-preservation needs. We'll need to be prepared to reassure these parts that they will still be needed, sometimes in certain contexts to do the old behavior, but most often operating in a new growth-oriented capacity, one that suits their talents and abilities.