Dissociative reality and dissociative being in therapy for posttraumatic patients

Posttraumatic patients experience a wide range of symptoms, some of them existential in nature which we term “dissociative being.” Many varied psychotherapeutic approaches are available for the treatment of posttraumatic patients. Nevertheless, in view of this disorder’s complexity, therapists face shortcomings when employing each of these therapeutic interventions. In order to understand this, we posit the principle we call “dissociative reality” for the treatment of trauma survivors. Our proposed method “speaks the patient’s own language,” harnessing dissociative elements to help individuals recall, re-enact and integrate traumatic experiences, where words are insufficient, while still upholding reality. We believe that this may be seen as an effective part of the therapeutic dialogue, and suggest that therapists may consider supplementing this approach in their treatment “toolkit” for patients with posttraumatic stress and other trauma related disorders, irrespective of their declared therapeutic approach.