1) What would someone with DID want a T to know if treating them?A. The importance of attachment dynamics and transference/counter-transference in the work. A lot of "content" is there and a therapist would do well to pay good attention to those areas. Also, that DID is for many a denial/invalidation based disorder. I know there is thought about the link between DID and disorganized attachment and in my case, that has manifested as having very anxious parts and very avoidant parts doing war inside as we tried to learn to trust T.
B. Denial of past abuses, denial of current realities that are intolerable, denial of self. Even the most functional often suffer under this. The lack of sense of objective reality can be crazy making (for the client and possibly for the T as well, who may have to hear different alters and/or the host disavow past events, present day actions and thoughts/emotions, which others claim with certainty). This is important for many reasons. Partially because these denials will sometimes be projected onto the therapist (s/he doesn't believe me!), as others have not believed in the past or abusers outright manipulated the truth in their favor; and essentially that integrating said parts together and the thoughts/emotions/experiences they hold requires negotiating through the invalidation/denial and into acceptance of one another.
C.
That not all DID manifests with the classic/popular signs of obvious identity alterations with full amnesia. Even those with time loss may have it infrequently, for very short duration when heavily triggered, and it can be as insidious (and easily hidden by other parts). This was particular important for me as my therapist suspected DID a few weeks in, but asked a few vague questions about classic time loss scenarios (I had no idea what he was talking about and panicked and said, "No! Nothing like that!" without even thinking it through). We ended up sorting it out in the end and I wouldn't have been ready to confront that as a diagnosis until later anyway, so it worked out in my case, but someone else might have a missed diagnosis from assuming the classic presentation.
2) What works/does not work for you in therapy?A. Short sessions do not work; long sessions do (two hours seems to be the minimum time that works for me to get out of the way and T to have decent amount of time to interact with and contain in the end). We just work very slow, I guess.
B. Sitting across from one another does not work; sitting next to one another, either on the couch or on the floor felt safer (once the relationship was well established). Being across from one another felt very adversarial, and having him take notes while talking made me feel like a zoo exhibit.
C. A strict environment and therapist inflexibility does not work. My T's willingness to adjust the room in ways that feels safe (TRIGGERS i.e. lots of light make one little have memories of being exposed and looked at) has been essential. His general willingness to consider changes to the way we work, like double-sessions, reading stories to littles, coloring together, etc. have made it safe for vulnerable ones to come out.
D. Consistency within the flexibility. My T is awful with scheduling and that has really taken a toll at times.
E. Safe touch (hugs, holding hands during prayer) negotiated between the T and ourself has been very positive and healing and is one of the only ways some of the littler ones have felt safe to talk.
F. As you mentioned a Christian University and my T works from a Christian Counseling perspective, being understanding of the religious ambivalence that is likely to be inherent with DID is important. Even though T will share his thoughts about God, his willingness to hear, accept and respond lovingly and without offense to those of us who are not on board with that stuff (and even to reframe certain concepts that were being twisted by a harmful religious upbringing) has made a huge difference.
3) What is your career or your successes in life?A. Graduated with a BA from Stanford.
B. Have managed to have a stable relationship (together almost 14 years, married 9, basically my entire adulthood). Obviously, there are some unhealthy patterns there, but coming from a family where my mother had dozens of relationships in my life time, it seems like a big deal to me.
C. Currently, I'm a mom with a childcare business on the side. Before I was working in Admin, beneath my abilities, getting promotions and still eventually quitting, because I couldn't stay for anything longer than two years max without finding an excuse to sabotage. Fear of failure has kept me from trying for other things I might be capable of. It is a huge trigger for a lot of us, so we just don't risk and only try things we are sure to succeed in.
4) What resources do you find beneficial?A. Forums like this.
B. Between session contact via text, phone.
C. Technical articles that explain dissociation.
5) Have you had or do you have a serious medical condition?Nope, never. I have had several somatic complaints, but I hate doctors and would never get them checked out. I just wrote them off as some weird physiological thing. Turns out most were body memories or other psychological issues.
In general, from what I've heard from other peoples' experiences, treating a DID client can be a very demanding job. My T muses that he is surprised what an "easy" difficult client I am. It can be emotionally demanding, triggering if the T has their own issues, cause vicarious trauma, cause burn out if T's do not watch their own needs/resources. It's probably good for a T to be doing their own work and have supervision as various boundary issues are likely to come up. I know that's a good idea in general for Ts.
) & that extreme stress compromises the immune system. 
very sad.
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