[Cleo6]

Hi please can I ask those that dissociates during therapy does your therapist get you out of it or does she allow you to continue talking until you come out it naturally. My t has only got me out of it twice, once when my body language showed I was in some sort of distress and the other time she sat forward in her chair and told me she loved me then started apologising saying that it came out wrong. All the other times she's just let me carry on talking until I come out naturally. I just wondered if this is normal to let clients come out of it naturally whether there's a psychological reason for it as I feel really uncomfortable not knowing what I've told her. I've heard others saying about grounding skills but she doesn't do any of that

[junkDNA]

he tries to get me out of it by taking me on walks

If he notices, mine will ask if I want assistance grounding and regrouping. Only once have we had a full session with me completely dissociated. I had to come to therapy straight from court and could not get back from being completely cut off from all emotion. I thought it was pretty unproductive and have made sure to never schedule things that way again. However the point of that little story was that he asked if I wanted assistance and that very cold, intellectual part of me told him to **** off and stay out of my head. He just said okay and we went on from there.

[Elio]

She has yet to notice on her own. Though I do think she is getting better. I have gotten much better at recognize that I an starting to lose my ability to track and have started telling her that rather than letting her continue to talk..ask questions. This last session, I think she might have caught that I was starting or caught something..because in the middle of her saying stuff she said ok and paused.

For me, talking about things in intellectual or analytical ways is a way to ground me. It activates a part of my brain that is calm.

Intellectual part of me told him to **** off and stay out of my head

I can relate to the get the **** out of my head and I have written that to my t several times.

[skeksi]

My T generally waits for me to come out of it. I think the reasoning is if I've dissociated, something doesn't feel safe to me, so I need time to feel safe before I can reconnect again. Sometimes I panic when I can't get myself back and then T will offer to help. He never just tries to bring me back unless I've agreed to it.

If I ask him to help me come back, he will. Sometimes im not able to do that and we end up missing most of the session. That used to upset me because I felt like I'd wasted the session, but I'm beginning to see that it can be helpful for me to just have some time where it is safe to be however I am, even if how I am is dissociated.

[kecanoe]

I have DID. T3 lets it go, she always knows it is happening and will sometimes draw my attention to it. For her, it's all grist for the mill. She does allow time for me to get back in my head at the end of each session and will help as needed. She is very good at detecting any dissociation.

T2, not so great, but when she notices she tends to insist that "I" come back. One time she let me leave as my 14 year old.

Neither T2 or T3 likes it when the 14 year old is in charge when I leave because they don't think she can drive. However, she is quite confident that she can drive.

[luvnola]

Both, depending on the level of dissociation. there are some grounding techniques that work and a lot that don't. My t generally knows when I'm not there as she says my facial expression and voice tone changes. She says even if I'm not talking and just listening to her, she can see a change in my eyes. Sometimes she'll leave me to come out of it on my own and other times she'll ask me to try grounding and will talk me through it.

[Cleo6]

Thank you for your replies. I only dissociate during therapy normally when I'm trying to talk about something difficult but sometimes it happens and I don't know why. I can't tell when it happens it's like a switch that goes from being in the room talking to a dark fuzziness not feeling or hearing anything but a safe feeling. It's hard to describe but she just lets me continue to talk. I've read you shouldn't be dissociated when processing trauma so wondered why she doesn't stop it

[Elio]

Originally Posted by Cleo6

I've read you shouldn't be dissociated when processing trauma so wondered why she doesn't stop it

I don't know about dissociation and processing trauma. One time when I caught myself and stopped my t talking about whatever and told her that it was happening, she tried to normalize my experience. She didn't even want to label it dissociation and talked about the different levels we might separate or disconnect in order to feel safe. I agree with her that a certain layer or type of dissociation can be and is useful in given situations. Maybe your t isn't aware of where or what extent you are dissociating or perhaps she feels that it is at a level where it can be a useful tool in your processing?

This is just a guess so take it as just me throwing ideas at the waterfalls and seeing if anything make sense to you... do you find that with repeated exposure to topics where you dissociate, you to become less sensitive to the exposures and are able to "last longer" before dissociating?

I have DID. while talking to our therapist, we are always switching. But she is very clever and figures out who is switching to who, and who she is talking to (most of the time.) She knows each of us well and can tell from our voice, posture, shape of our face and eyes, etc. She just rolls with it and talks to whoever is out.