maybe this will help, in order for a therapist to ask someone how do you know you are dissociating, you first had to tell the therapist that you dissociate. right.

so now your therapist wants you to explain what you mean when you said you dissociate.

lets take a different situation... if you went to a doctor and said I feel a pain. the doctor is going to want to know what kind of pain you feel, where you feel that pain because they heard you say the words that you feel a pain.

well therapy is like that. if you say you dissociate, then they want to know what you mean by your saying you dissociate...

my suggestion is think about when you told your treatment provider that you dissociate and think about what you meant. what does the word dissociate mean to you, and how you feel that you are dissociating.

Im taking a guess here that you know what the word dissociating means to you, otherwise you would not have used that word when telling your therapist that you do it. so just think back to the conversation of when you said that you do it and then write out what you meant by saying it.

unless of course you just heard and like that word so you told your therapist a word (dissociate) in therapy with out understanding how and why you do it. One of my children does this sometimes and we have to explain to her not to repeat words she does not understand in context to herself..

my point in this case just explain to your treatment provider why you used the word dissociate and what you were feeling when you used the word "dissociate" they will be able to tell you what the correct word is for what ever is going on with in you.