Finding the Way Out of Dissociation

For our clients, it is already a relief and a first step towards change when we inform them that dissociations are a normal consequence of traumatic experiences. In the moment of the event, they protect us from its force and afterwards from the intensity of the memory and the associated feelings and physical sensations. For example, emotional numbness can be a protection against the unfathomable emotional pain, uncontrollable rage or unbearable guilt, enabling us to cope with and master our everyday life. But these protective and survival mechanisms have their price; they separate us from our inner self, other people and our environment and give us the feeling of not really being alive.