My shrink is quite familiar with dissociative phenomena so he thinks it's protective and that actually most people use it in one form or another. He normalizes it so much that actually it has had the reverse effect. Now I let more come through and don't rely on it as much. This happen quite by accident and largely unconsciously. I didn't try to force myself to feel more. I just became more accepting and felt safer with my therapist so that I could feel things more in the moment. His not pathologizing or pushing the dissociation actually made me be more accepting and have self-compassion so that I felt more able to be a friend to myself and let the feelings out.