Information about Alison Miller and Her Research

Information about Alison Miller and Her Research

Books

Miller, Alison (2011). Healing the Unimaginable – Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control is a practical, task-oriented, instructional manual designed to help therapists provide effective treatment for survivors of these most extreme forms of child abuse and mental manipulation. Paperback: 978 1 85575 882 7 Published: October 2011 Publisher: Karnac Books http://us.karnacbooks.com/product/healing-the-unimaginable-treating-ritual-abuse-and-mind-control/30026/
https://books.google.com/books?id=On8cKGyrnfcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Healing+the+Unimaginable:+Treating+Ritual+Abuse+and+Mind+Control+By+Alison+Miller

Miller, Alison (2014). Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse In contrast to the author’s previous book, Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control, which was for therapists, this book is designed for survivors of these abuses. It takes the survivor systematically through understanding the abuses and how his or her symptoms may be consequences of these abuses, and gives practical advice regarding how a survivor can achieve stability and manage the life issues with which he or she may have difficulty. The book also teaches the survivor how to work with his or her complex personality system and with the traumatic memories, to heal the wounds created by the abuse.

A unique feature of this book is that it addresses the reader as if he or she is dissociative, and directs some information and exercises towards the internal leaders of the personality system, teaching them how to build a cooperative and healing inner community within which information is shared, each part’s needs are met, and traumatic memories can be worked through successfully. http://us.karnacbooks.com/product/becoming-yourself-overcoming-mind-control-and-ritual-abuse/34803/
https://books.google.com/books?id=o3B_AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Becoming+Yourself:+Overcoming+Mind+Control+and+Ritual+Abuse+By+Alison+Miller

Conference Presentations

Dr. Alison Miller conference PowerPoint Overcoming Mind Control: Keys to Recovery https://survivorship.org/documents/OvercomingMindControl.pptx

Alison Miller’s Second Conference Workshop 2015 Building Internal Cooperation https://survivorship.org/documents/DevelopingInternalCooperation.pptx

Alison Miller’s conference presentation outline Overcoming Mind Control: Keys to Recovery https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2014-conference/overcoming-mind-control-keys-to-recovery/

Articles and Books on Parenting and Spouse Abuse

Articles by Dr. Alison Miller and Dr. Allison Rees http://lifeseminars.com/books/

The Parent Child Connection book for parents and professionals
Published in 2008, “The Parent-Child Connection” is the second of our original two LIFE (Living in Families Effectively) books. It’s based on the course of the same name. It contains everything you need to know about the parent-child relationship, including developing a healthy bond with your children, communicating effectively, establishing and respecting boundaries in the family, handling your own and your children’s emotions, and developing their and your self-esteem.

Sidestepping the Power Struggle 
book for parents and professionals

LIFE Seminars first book published in 2007 and entitled “Sidestepping the Power Struggle” contains everything you need to know about your children’s individual temperaments, their stage of development, behavior at each age, and what events can trigger difficult child behaviors. It teaches you how to help children take responsibility for their own lives as they mature, and how to help them mature into ethical and competent human beings. It discusses effective and ineffective discipline techniques. If you read and practice everything recommended in this book, it will not only empower you to become a more effective parent, but also enrich the lives of those who matter most.

Articles by Dr. Alison Miller on Parenting http://lifeseminars.com/articles-by-alison-miller/

The Dissociative Dance of Spouse Abuse
by Alison Miller, PhD
Abstract
Cyclical spouse abusers, whether male or female, appear to suffer from a specific type of dissociative disorder that is related to a disturbance of attachment. This disorder is sufficiently common to be designated as a dissociative disorder in its own right. The partner of the spouse abuser appears to develop a parallel dissociative process, developing chains of state-dependent memory for the different phases of the domestic abuse cycle. This dissociative process helps both partners stay in the relationship, while leaving might be the best course of action. This “dissociative dance” facilitates the formation of dissociative splits in their children, enhancing the likelihood that they will be either victims or perpetrators of domestic violence http://www.academia.edu/4594732/Dissociative_Dance_of_Spouse_Abuse

CKLN-FM Mind Control Series, How our brains work to erase bad memories

CKLN-FM Mind Control Series - Table of Contents 
includes:
- Mind Control Survivors' Testimony at the Human Radiation Experiments Hearings
- Interview with Valerie Wolf, Claudia Mullen and Chris deNicola Ebner
- Lecture by Dr. Alan Scheflin - History of Mind Control 
- Claudia Mullen - Presentation to the Believe the Children Conference, Interview
- Lecture by Therapist Valerie Wolf, M.S.W.: Assessment and Treatment of Survivors of Sadistic Abuse
- Interview with Valerie Wolf, M.S.W., therapist to trauma and mind control survivors
- Interview with Dr. Stephen Kent, sociologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, on Cults and Ritual Abuse
- Making up for Lost Time Conference, Thunder Bay - Lynne Moss-Sharman Interview - ACHES-MC contact, ritual abuse victim
- Presentation by Professor Alan Scheflin - Risk Management in Dissociative Disorder and Trauma Therapy
- Ritual Abuse Panel -- Toronto psychotherapist Gail Fisher-Taylor and Caryn Stardancer, California-based advocate for survivors and publisher of "Survivorship".
http://www.randomcollection.info/mcf/radio/ckln-hm.htm


How our brains work to erase bad memories - Got a bad memory? The brain has a unique way of helping you forget. By Meghan Holohan  October 19, 2012

....Researchers found that we use two different ways -- suppression or substitution -- to avoid thinking of uncomfortable or unhappy memories.

“We assume that, in everyday life, healthy people will use a mixture of both mechanisms to prevent an unwanted memory from coming to mind,” says Roland Benoit, a scientist at the Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at University of Cambridge, via email. “We did not know whether the processes of direct suppression and thought substitution can be isolated, and which, if any of them, would actually cause forgetting.”

Roland and his co-author, Michael Anderson, asked 36 adults to participate in a memory exercise where half suppressed memories and the other half substituted new memories. The researchers hoped to understand how we voluntarily forget and how it affects general memory. The subjects were tested during magnetic resonance imaging procedures, or MRIs, allowing the researchers to observe how the brain works during suppression and substitution.

While both processes cause forgetting, a different region of the brain controls each one. When people suppress memories, the dorsal prefrontal cortex inhibits activation in the hippocampus, which plays an important role in retaining memories.

“It thus effectively breaks the remembering process. This, in turn, disrupts the memory representations that would be necessary for recalling the unwanted memory later on,” Benoit explains....

“By just looking at how well people forgot memories, you couldn’t tell whether they had done direct suppression or thought substitution,” Benoit says. “These mechanisms are based on different brain systems that work in opposite fashion: One (direct suppression) by ‘slamming the mental break’ to stop the remembering process and the other (thought substitution) by steering the remembering process towards a substitute memory.”

Even though people exploit both to forget those nagging, unwanted memories, actively overlooking unpleasant events can negatively impact how we remember. But Benoit notes that learning how people deal with unwanted memories helps them understand how people with traumatic memories, such as PTSD sufferers, cope with remembering.

“It is perfectly natural for people, upon encountering an unwelcome reminder, to try to put the unpleasant reminding out of mind. We all have experienced this.  Intuitively, it feels as though we solved this problem.” 
http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/19/14540990-how-our-brains-work-to-erase-bad-memories