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Dissociation
Working with dissociation entails an integration of trauma therapy and what is often referred to as “parts work”.
When there are overwhelming experiences that cannot be integrated at the time, a person’s personality structure divides varying degrees to manage the experiences. These parts of self have different degrees of feeling “me and not me”, varying degrees of autonomy, individuality and contact or knowledge of other parts of self. These parts of self are usually stuck “in trauma time” and find themselves reliving the traumatic experiences over and over without awareness that time has moved on and life is (hopefully) different today.
Dissociation and Extreme Trauma
With extreme trauma there may be multiple parts of self, multiple groups of parts of self, and will usually have high degrees of “me and not me”, individualisation and elaboration, and autonomy. Some may be aware that they are one personality, others will find it hard to fathom. It is important to know that this is a normal response to severe trauma and is highly adaptive for a traumatic world- the mind done the best thing at the time and each person’s self system has a very logical way of managing. However, the issues that come with it, especially when/if the trauma is over, adapting to “normal life” can be hugely difficult and terrifying.
Healing Through Internal Cooperation
Every part of a system if there for a reason, no part is more or less important and no part is more or less of a person; they are all you. Every aspect of self has a purpose, some parts of self may hold a trauma so that a part of self that functions externally can “depersonalise” or make the experience seem “unreal” to reduce overwhelm. Some parts of self hold emotions that were too intense to handle for the self structure as a whole. Some parts of self may hold different aspects of the same situation: in a sequential manner or simultaneous manner of conflicted aspects. Some parts of self manage the external world, while others manage the internal world. Different parts of self will often have conflicting relationships with other parts: shame, guilt, blame whilst others will have nurturing or closer relationships internally. Some may be unaware of each other at all.
Using a personalised approach of working on the relationship between parts of self, and working through a trauma and attachment based framework I believe is necessary. This can be highly scary process to start, especially when a core dilemma is the need to connect along with a fear of people getting close, so it is important not to rush. It is also important not to slow down too much either. My job will be both to speed up and slow down the process depending on what we are doing and your ability to regulate or co-regulate with me at the time. With dissociation, I aim to work with you to improve cooperation internally, to work through traumas gradually, whilst helping parts of self understand the parts they and others play in keeping you alive and work on adjusting things slowly to adapt to how life is today. It is fully cooperative and done with communication and permission. You are in charge here and I work with parts of self for them to make decisions.
Get in touch
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how counselling works, or to arrange an initial appointment. This enables us to discuss the reasons you are thinking of coming to counselling, whether it could be helpful for you and whether I am the right therapist to help.
You can also call me on +44 74705 14551 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first. I am happy to discuss any queries or questions you may have prior to arranging an initial appointment.
All enquires are usually answered within 24 hours, and all contact is strictly confidential and uses secure phone and email services.