precaryous..,. if my own treatment provider was answering your questions my therapy session would look like this...

1) If dissociating is a part of the process of handling therapy...and not awful or bad...is the goal to encourage dissociation or do we try not to dissociate?
2) How can you help me come back?
3) How do you know you can get me back?
4) What happens if I don't come back before the session is over?
5) How do we know I am safe to drive home?
6) Why would I leave some times and not others?

my therapists answers....

1) no therapy isnt for encouraging dissociation. dissociation happens on a normal level, every human being does it. it becomes abnormal when it interferes with a persons life. As it continues to move through the abnormal it becomes a dissociative disorder. the DSM 5 lists what dissociative disorders are recognized here in america.....

http://forums.psychcentral.com/disso...s-dsm-5-a.html

since dissociation is a perfectly normal thing for people to do (on the normal level) then just like everything else you do in life, it normally does happen in therapy too. in therapy it can happen on the normal standards or the abnormal standards depending upon ones own triggers for what causes them to dissociate. some people dissociate very little in therapy others dissociate a lot.

the goal of therapy isnt to encourage or discourage dissociation. its learning how to deal with the problems in your life and if you do have a dissociative problem on the abnormal level to learn how to handle what ever is causing this so that you can get back to being able to handle your own problems without relying on the abnormal levels of dissociation.

2) sorry I cant help you to come back. you must want to come back. example I can sit here and talk about everything sunny and happy but thats not going to get you back if you dont want to come back. my job isnt to bring you back. my job is to help you figure out how to handle what ever triggered you to "leave". you have been dissociative all your life and here you are so if you are not back by the time our session ends well I trust your internal system to continue to take care of you just like it always has.

that said if you know of something that will help you to re ground yourself and bring yourself back during our sessions I will be glad to incorporate that grounding tool in our sessions.

3) like I said I cant bring you back, you bring yourself back when you are ready to come back. I can not force you to stay aware and in the present moment.. Im not here to fix your problems/do the work for you. I am here to help you learn how to do the work so that you can fix yourself. but all is not lost because we do have a very good hospital down the street for those who are so mentally ill that they are unable to take care of their selves. Im guessing since you are sitting here right now in front of me mentally aware/ not lost in perpetual forever dissociated state of mind somewhere inside you, you do have the ability to come back when you are ready to come back. But if you like we can work into your treatment plans of visiting the mental health unit in the event that you are unable to come back.

4) we end the session just like we normally do. Your internal system has taken care of you all these years it will take care of you before, during and after sessions. just the way Dissociative Disorders work.

5) "we" meaning me? I dont but again your internal system must have its way to take care of this problem otherwise you wouldnt be here today safe and sound. If you feel you may have a problem driving home after sessions maybe you can work out an emergency plan with someone else (a neighbor, friend, relative) to pick you up after sessions or take the city transport system (taxi or bus or train...) that way you dont need to worry about it.

6) only you and your internal system knows what and why you leave sometimes and dont other times. maybe you can keep track somehow (journal or otherwise) of those times when you leave. this way you will be able to discover why you leave sometimes and dont other times.

as for the rest of your post....

"Could you guys tell me how you deal with dissociation in therapy? Can you comment on any of these questions? Do you feel embarrassed when you dissociate in front of T?"

sorry no I cant tell you how to deal with dissociation in therapy. I can tell you how.....I.....deal with dissociation in therapy. my therapist and I deal with it like I stated above. we dont try to prevent or force it from happening. we treat it like it is...just a natural part of life. we even joke about it sometimes. last time I spaced off and realized I didnt hear what my therapist said i told her...hold on back up I just went boating and I still dont have my land legs. she smiled and said ok how about a cup of tea? she made tea and I re grounded myself. the same thing when I wasnt integrated. if I happened to become aware during therapy that I had dissociated I would make a comment so that my therapist knew I had left, then we would take a small break from the hard stuff while I breathed/re grounded then we would discuss what had triggered the leaving so that I could learn form that.

do I feel embarrassed no. my diagnosis was DID. that meant my therapist knew and saw me dissociate before I even knew I had DID. it was my therapist that recognized it and had me go through the diagnostic process. getting the diagnosis didnt change anything, just put a name to what had already been happening. Since I had been dissociating since I was a child, dissociation was my normal, nothing to be embarrassed about in my mind. What embarrassed me was after integration I wasnt switching into an alter for example when stressed at work so it embarrassed me when I did something wrong at work or was stressed at work. you see with me the alters held all my emotions/trauma's things I couldnt handle so I had no feelings/ couldnt express feelings, was numb. but after integration I was able to feel emotions like embarrassment. just how my system worked.