Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Daily Life

Introject parts, based on a term from Gestalt therapy, can refer to parts that are intruding with the process of the core self or the entire system, and sometimes seem to align with a perpetrator or an abusive figure.

Parts is a general term used in the psychological and helping professions that can refer to many different things. I see it as the most generic term possible that can be used to describe aspects, sides, or facets of self that do not necessarily represent the presence of another ego state. Some people even conceptualize their parts as the various ro

One of the reasons we encourage people who dissociate to learn grounding skills is so they can cultivate a sense of safety within themselves. Creating a safe harbor within can be essential when navigating a world that fundamentally feels unsafe.

After making this core playlist, you may challenge yourself and/or your system to take it a little deeper. Consider making a second playlist along the theme of safety. Are there ten songs or ten musical moods that help you feel a little safer, especially if that sense of safety is internal?

The key to trauma-informing anything is that you can always modify the language and if you are working with a professional, it’s important that they understand that language may very much matter to you.

the solution to unhelpful dissociation is to promote a greater sense of association.

With the feet strategy, as long as their feet are available to do this, I will invite my clients to press their feet into the ground, look at them for a sense of visual anchoring, and then perhaps use a saying like, “My feet will not lie to me. My mind can pull me into the past or project me into the future, but my feet will always tell me where I

Perhaps you have a fictional character that you work with as a protector figure or resource; one of mine is Wonder Woman, complete with her gold wrist cuffs and the Lasso of Truth. Can you consult a soundtrack from one of the movies or series made for that fictional character and include them on your list?

Using verbiage from the late Dr. Francine Shapiro, the creator of EMDR Therapy, these experiences can be adaptive (i.e., serving or helping us) or maladaptive (i.e., keeping us further stuck). She used these terms in describing responses to traumatic experiences (as opposed to terms like healthy or unhealthy) because she saw them as less of a value