”The Plural Association is thrilled to announce Dr. Emma Sunshaw from the SystemSpeak Podcast and blog as our first Plural Therapist and Advocate of the Year 2020!”
If you are a newsletter subscriber of The Plural Association, you already knew that Psychotherapy Day is on September 25th 2020. It was founded in 2012 by a group of professionals and students and is designed to combat misconceptions and raise awareness of the vital work that is done by therapists in helping the one in four people who suffer from mental illness as well as those with emotional problems. To celebrate this day and our collaborations with the clinical community The Plural Association has decided to give away an award!
The Plural Association is thrilled to announce Dr. Emma Sunshaw from the SystemSpeak Podcast and blog as our first Plural Therapist and Advocate of the Year 2020!
Emma Sunshaw, PhD, earned her B.S. in Human Development, her M.S. in Professional Counseling, and her PhD specializing in Marriage and Family Therapy. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) in two states, as well as a certified chaplain. She has been in private practice since 2004, with additional experience in ER triage, inpatient psychiatric, residential treatment, school-based, and outpatient settings. She helped make the world a friendlier place in many ways this year, including representing and advocating for plurals at the ISSTD directly. She is now conducting teletherapy in a time of crisis when access to qualified care is so important. She is also the training coordinator for ISSTD.
In 2019, Dr. Sunshaw helped to conduct a survey of plural systems as part of the 2019 Plural Positivity World Conference, with results accepted to be shared in 2020 at the ISSTD Conference in San Francisco, which was unfortunately cancelled due to the pandemic.
The survey received 863 responses from different IP addresses (which were not tracked or recorded, but filtered only for non-repetition of the survey), from 61 different countries.
The survey led to many very insightful conclusions, such as the fact that 92% of participants were interested in some form of functional multiplicity and that 78% of participants did not want to attempt fusion integration. No plurals identified as being iatrogenic in any form. The survey also found that, “20% of the participants were in the age group of 18-24; however, that said, more participants have finished high school than their parents. More have some college, even if they have not finished a degree. More have associate’s degrees than their fathers. More have bachelor’s degrees.” Also of note is that 21% of respondents had been referred six or more times for therapy. There are too many gems of information to possibly list here, but you can find the results from the survey on her blog here!
https://www.systemspeak.org/blog/2020/1/13/ppwc-2020-the-2019-ppwc-survey-results
Dr. Sunshaw’s podcast, System Speak, has received the ISSTD Media Award, and she has really put effort into normalizing a lot of plural experiences while also sharing important educational information and being transparent with her listeners. This sort of representation in media has meant so much to so many plurals, many of us on the team included!
Dr. Sunshaw , who is diagnosed with DID, and her system began their global podcast, System Speak, when they recognized the need for an ongoing DID-related media to educate themselves and others. System Speak is about documenting one journey, educating many, and finding their own voices. It is about finding a way to bridge the gap between survivor and clinician. It is about advocacy, fighting stigma, and adding substance, quality, and rawness to the online conversation regarding trauma in general, and Dissociative Identity Disorder specifically. System Speak podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and most other players, as well as the website https://www.SystemSpeak.org.
Dr. Sunshaw has also donated her valuable time, to train The Plural Association Team with necessary suicide prevention training for our Plural warmline. Suicide prevention training is not cheap and with a statistic of 70% for outpatient DID Plurals, we know we cannot do this work without this important training. Without this training we are not able to move forward with the warmline project. This is a huge donation and contribution, skill sharing and grassroots organizing. We are so grateful for the relationships we have built with Dr. Sunshaw and for her continued support and both (all) our efforts to include all Plurals and grow together.
Congratulations Dr. Sunshaw! The many in us honor the many in you and all you do.
To celebrate we send over some goodies to Dr. Sunshaw like this acrylic block that says all many& are welcome here. Want to get your own or other goodies? Visit the StrongholdShop (< click) and 50% of the proceeds are donated to The Plural Association Nonprofit.
Are You a Plural Therapist or Advocate?
If you would like to submit yourself as a candidate for Plural Therapist and Advocate of the Year 2021, please contact us at contact@thepluralassociation.org and tell us what you have done this year to support Plurals. This could include in your practice, but also how you have advocated on the behalf of Plurals with your colleagues, within your community, and/or with the mental health community at large. Did you do research into Plurality? Did you write a paper or organize a research project, as examples? What have you done to normalize the Plural experience, and how have you educated yourself as to how to best represent the needs of our community in your advocacy?
Are you not a licensed clinician but a peer support advocate? You can nominate yourself to win Peer Support Advocate of the Year by emailing us at contact@thepluralassociation.org