William B. Tollefson, PhD, NCP, CCH, RHt, CRT, CAC, is the Center Director of The Women's Institute for Incorporation Therapy. Everybody calls him Dr. Bill. He received his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1984. He has developed a stabilization technique called Incorporation Therapy, which has proven to be very effective in helping women with trauma based Dissociative and Dissociative Identity Disorders (MPD). In addition to establishing and supervising the Women's Institute for Incorporation Therapy, he has traveled extensively since 1992, lecturing on Dissociative Disorders and training professionals in his treatment methods. He has been the featured speaker at a number of state and national conferences.

I understand that Dr. Bill has written a book?
That's true. The title is Separated From the Light. The first printing sold out fairly quickly, but the second addition is now available. Click here to order a copy of Separated From the Light.

I want to know more about Dr. Bill's technique... What is dissociation?
What WIIT taught me was that dissociation is a gift that everybody has to help them survive overwhelming events. They also taught me that it is a separation of the body and mind which occurs as a result of trauma... the body is trapped in the traumatic event, but the mind escapes. This is a highly developed survival skill which is recognizable from outside the victim by a fixed gaze with a slow or non-response to external stimuli or a marked change in mood, affect, and/or behavior.

What does Dr. Bill mean by "Incorporation Therapy?"
Incorporation Therapy is a proactive approach to the stabilization of the internal crisis and chaos that is the hallmark of those suffering from Dissociative Disorders. The approach is two pronged. These are very intelligent and creative people. It is their very intelligence and creativity that allowed them to "escape within themselves" when they were small and physically defenseless. So there is a strong didactic component to the program which helps them to understand how and why they got the way they are. This accomplishes a number of things. To begin with it helps them to begin to realize that they are not "crazy" and that they might possibly be able to get well. It also starts to take some of the terror out of their experiences and frees them to begin to talk about what's really going on inside them. At that point they can begin to learn some techniques to help them stay grounded and present... On the other hand, since these patients have relied so heavily on their cognitive system for survival, it is best to work with them therapeutically from an emotional approach. Incorporation therapy focuses on the loss of self in the trauma episode. Therefore, the identification, acceptance and forgiveness of self are important if the patient is to gain a healthy internal relationship with self... In the final stage, Incorporation therapy is a patient driven revisiting technique that allows an individual to recover what they had lost during a traumatic event and to resolve the emotional component connected to a memory of traumatic loss.