Do you lose track of time, feel unreal or detached, or find that part of you seems to step away when things become too much? This programme is for people who experience that and want steadier ground to stand on.
Dissociation is the way the mind protects itself when experiences feel too overwhelming. Faced with something it cannot process at the time, the mind puts distance between you and what is happening. That is not a fault or a weakness. It is a protective response doing exactly what it evolved to do.
The difficulty is that the response can outlast the danger. Long after the original events, the same protection keeps switching on in situations that are stressful but not dangerous, and the cost of that shows up in work, in relationships and in how present you are able to be in your own life. This is why trauma and dissociation therapy works on both at once rather than treating them as separate problems.
Dissociation is a normal protective response that becomes a problem when it keeps firing long after the danger has passed. It is common after overwhelming experience, and it is far more ordinary than most people realise. People describe it in very different ways.
The programme is skills based. The first task is stability, because skills for staying present and grounded are what make deeper work possible later, and going too fast is one of the commonest reasons people find therapy overwhelming rather than helpful.
Learning your own early warning signs, and the situations and sensations that reliably set them off.
Practical ways to come back to the present, to the room you are in, and to the current moment in time.
Working out where your tolerable range sits, and how to notice when you are drifting above or below it.
Building a workable relationship with the parts of yourself that hold different feelings and different jobs.
Sleep, routine, food and rhythm, which sound unglamorous and do more for stability than almost anything else.
Having an agreed plan for hard days, so decisions are made in advance rather than in the middle of distress.
The programme suits adults who recognise themselves in the descriptions above and want structure and skills rather than open ended exploration. Many people take part alongside individual therapy. Kathryn Ryan is a member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and has worked in this area across private practice and community mental health.
The first step is a conversation. That is where the two of you work out whether this programme, individual therapy, or a different starting point makes the most sense for you.
If you need help right now, free call or text 1737 any time to talk with a trained counsellor, or call Lifeline on 0800 543 354. In an emergency, call 111.
