How do you help a client who is dissociating?

If a client is dissociating in the session, simple exercises can help ground them. You could ask a client to find three red objects in the room, or ask the client to listen out for three sounds and identify them. Sound can be a safe bridge back into the here-and-now.

How can you tell if someone is dissociating?

What Are Symptoms of Dissociation?

• Have an out-of-body experience.
• Feel like you are a different person sometimes.
• Feel like your heart is pounding or you’re light-headed.
• Feel emotionally numb or detached.
• Feel little or no pain.

Can you be aware that you are dissociating?

The difference from active avoidance (on purpose avoiding thinking about or doing something) is that dissociation tends to happen without planning or even awareness. Many times, people who are dissociating are not even aware that it is happening, other people notice it.

Can CBT help with dissociation?

Different psychotherapies are used to treat dissociative episodes to decrease symptom frequency and improve coping strategies for the experience of dissociation. Some of the more common therapies include: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps change the negative thinking and behavior associated with depression.

How do you ground dissociative clients?

Educate: Give your client basic information about trauma and dissociation. Give them information about what is happening, but don’t drown them in technicalities. (Clients are often not ready to hear details: they will find this out for themselves when they are ready.)

Should I be worried about disassociating in a therapy session?

If you are worried about maybe disassociating in a therapy session, be sure you choose a therapist who has had experience with trauma and who is someone you can rely on to help you. Loading…

What should I do if my client is dissociating?

Although it is important to be gentle and compassionate when discussing the topic, ignoring dissociation keeps clients in a disempowered state and colludes with the inaccurate idea that zoning out is still a necessary response. Keep in mind that dissociation always happens because the client is feeling threatened.

How can you tell if a person is dissociating from trauma?

Dissociation in Therapy Sessions. People who have had trauma in their lives dissociate in therapy sessions often, so therapists who work with trauma are quite familiar with it. The most common way to tell when someone is dissociating is by looking at their eyes, which get defocused, and seem to be “pulled inward.”.

What is the purpose of a dissociative counseling session?

The purpose is to empower the person to not feel so unable to control the dissociative experiences and to explain why it happens and assure them it is not intentional, and that sometimes they aren’t going to be able to consciously decide not to do it.