What is a part?

 Said in the simplest way possible and looked from the perspective of trauma work, a part is an informational unit containing a simplified version of the person it resides in. In essence, an aspect of their personality. It has its own version of belief system, emotional system, family system and the environment it came into contact with. In a way, it is a building block that covers a puzzle piece of who we are. There are a lot of parts in us that all together become an expression of who we are and how we perceive the world around us. When we walk around or read an article there are always a number of these parts looking out from your eyes or reacting emotionally, triggering thoughts on your mental level about what you are experiencing.

 Let's say that there is a part that holds in itself a trauma experience. This part has its own reactivity to the circumstances it perceives to be around it. When these circumstances start to resemble a moment in time the trauma was created it becomes triggered. This trigger can feel like elevated emotions. Sometimes fear, freeze, anger. Really any of emotions including laughing in inappropriate moments. This is a trauma reaction the part holds in itself. Using appropriate techniques this trauma response can be worked with in a way that it will change or starts to change, depending on the severity of a trauma. Sometimes if trauma has happened over and over again in childhood there are many parts that hold it and this reactivity is deep in the emotional system and needs more work to change.

 Also it is worth mentioning that trauma is not only located in these parts, but also in thought patterns and belief systems a person holds. Even if we go ahead and resolve the parts trigger. We still need to connect this to our mental plane and see what belief was shaped by that experience. What decisions does this person make because of that trauma? Human beings are multidimensional by nature. Therefore all these different dimensions need to be updated.

 In trauma work a part is an access point to information. It is like a door into yourself. A possibility to access and change how your emotional system works and reacts.