DID in front of us and gives insight into their world.”

Lisa has had several counsellors before, but when all her kids left home and she moved to the Coast four years ago, she began seeing Helga, who specialises in trauma and has been a psychologist for 20 years.

Helga has helped a number of people with DID and says this diagnosis can still be extremely controversial – there are some who don’t believe it exists.

“When I sit with someone and see it happening in front of me and learn how it impacts their life, and their family’s life, caring is in our nature .

People sometimes ask why we chose to become funeral directors. Our answer is always the samebecause we care about people and about the details. Dil’s. Creating beautiful funerals on the coast.

48 Waiora Rd Stanmore Bay (09) 424 2675 www.dils.co.nz it is clear,” she says. It can cause chaos because of memory lapses.”

The Mental Health Foundation describes DID as “quite rare”, however Helga says it might be more prevalent than people realise, possibly more common than Schizophrenia, and only slightly less than Bipolar Disorder.

She says it is important to understand that the alters are not different people, but different parts of the same person.

“By the time they come to therapy most have already named them, but I talk about them as parts of the person, not separate beings,” Helga says.

For Lisa, life carries on as usual, but she says she is getting more clarity since seeing Helga. “We are working together as a team much better and I don’t have so much time missing,” she says. “Helga pointed out that from the exhibition, everyone will know all about me. But I don’t know any other life and I’m not embarrassed by it. The art made it more real for me – it was just so neat to see that all of that, and all super different, came from inside me.”

Lisa and Co – Creative life with DID, is on at Estuary Arts Centre in Ōrewa from July 5-30.