Treatment of Dissociation Flashcards
What are the principles of treatment?
The primary objective of treatment is to improve adaptive functioning, focus on treatment, intervention (means of helping to gain capacity to handle difficulties as they come up)
How does trauma disrupt the triad of Affect, Cognition, and Behaviour?
Normally, affect -> cognition -> behaviour. But in this case, strong emotions override cognitive processing leading to a dissociative reaction
How do dissociative people relate to their emotions?
Dissociative people often don’t recognize their emotions or monitor the fluctuating intensity. For ex, difficult to identify what they feel, unable to keep their emotions in check, etc
Why do dissociative people experience shame?
They don’t feel like the executor of their own actions, but they experience condemnation or rejection from others which lead to shame and self-condemnation
What are the major sources that cause the disruption of the triad (Affect, Cognition, Behaviour)?
Disruptions of capacities due to impact of trauma, developmental of these capacities hindered due to environment not conductive to ‘normal’ development
What are the therapeutic goals?
Foster capacity for emotional self-regulation, Increase cognitive ability for awareness of emotions, increase ability to control own behaviour by refraining from reacting to intense emotions in the moment
What are the benefits of the Mindfulness approach?
Helps reduce stress, improve self-regulation, help focus and concentration, help tolerate emotions, mental calmness
What is Sensorimotor Psychotherapy?
It is a form of mindfulness with attention to the body. Understand the physical manifestations of different parts of the self (ex: slumped shoulders related to compliance)
What are the sensorimotor building blocks of the present moment experience?
Cognition (ex: thoughts), emotion, five senses, movement, body sensations
How do the sensorimotor building blocks work?
The blocks continually influence each other and can trigger other blocks and combinations. A combination of triggers and blocks can create or recreate experiences connected to dissociative parts. The goal is to notice the different blocks (ex: what happens to my body when I think badly about myself?)
