Dissociation and Developmental Stages - a person-centred perspective

Where there is chronic abuse in childhood, many learn to survive by dissociating from their traumatic experiences. This may involve leaving the body, numbing out, splitting off, depersonalising and/or derealising. The experience and expression of dissociative process can be confusing for therapists as well as for the person living with it. The vulnerability of people experiencing dissociative processes to being pathologised and diagnosed with various mental illnesses (i.e. psychosis, personality disorders, BPD, EUBPD and so on) comes from a lack of understanding of this survival strategy. This session will include discussion of childhood developmental stages and how these interact with dissociative experiencing, to highlight the needs of each stage in the healing process, and how we as therapists can come alongside most effectively. We will focus too on how we, as practitioners, may empower and support clients who want to heal these long terms wounds, and live their lives more fully and creatively.