Feeling Numb, Floaty, or Shut Down? It Might Be Dissociation
Episode 96: Feeling Numb, Floaty, or Shut Down? It Might Be Dissociation with Casey
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Ever felt like you’re floating through life, watching it all happen from the outside? That might be dissociation—and no, it's not as scary as it sounds
In this episode, Sarah and Casey unpack what dissociation really is (hint: it’s more common than you think). They explore how it shows up across a spectrum, from zoning out during conversations to feeling completely disconnected from your body—and why these responses make so much sense in the context of trauma.
You'll hear:
How dissociation functions as protection, not pathology
Ways it can show up in daily life without you realizing
Personal stories from Sarah and Casey’s own healing journeys
Why reconnecting with your body takes time, care, and zero shame
💌 Grab the free resource mentioned in this episode:
Free Embodiment Map: Tiny Bridges Back to Your Body — a gentle guide to help you feel a little more here.
Grab our Window of Tolerance Worksheet here
If this episode resonates, share it with someone who’s healing from disconnection too. And make sure you're following Reclaim You so you don’t miss what’s next 🧡.
Thanks for listening to Reclaim You with Reclaim Therapy!
To learn more about Reclaim Therapy and how to work with a therapist on the team, head to https://www.reclaimtherapy.org.
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Sarah (00:00)
Hey everybody, welcome back to Reclaim You. We are back. Casey's here.
Casey (00:05)
Hello.
Sarah (00:05)
Hey, hey, so we took a little break because we had lots of stuff going on, right? It was a busy, it's May, it's been a busy start of the year. So.
Casey (00:14)
Mm-hmm.
Very busy.
Sarah (00:16)
Yeah, so we're back. Yeah, yeah, so new office. Yeah, I was gonna say since the last time we recorded, at least Casey and I, we've moved office spaces down the road about a half a mile from where we were and we have a nice, beautiful, big space. So I'm here today. Yeah, it's lovely. Yeah, what's new with you, Casey? What's been going on?
Casey (00:17)
We're back. New office.
bigger and better. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Well, I think I'm in a different location.
Sarah (00:40)
I think so. I think so.
Casey (00:41)
We
have officially moved. So different house, very exciting. Everyone's been following the Saga on the podcast, obviously. And it's been years in the making. So, hurrah, we're here. So Sarah and I are neighbors. It's pretty great.
Sarah (00:50)
Yes, years, years and years. Yay.
We are. Casey came over yesterday to help us plant strawberries. Yeah. Yeah, my kids were very excited and they're like, are the strawberries out yet? I'm like, guys, no, no. Give it some time. Yeah.
Casey (01:00)
Yeah, it was a good time.
They're so cute. Aww. Hmm. Yeah.
It's been good. But it's been busy. mean, think everybody, the whole practice has just been, everybody, it's just been busy and doing stuff and ever since the holidays, it's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Which is good. It's good. Life just keeps moving on. Yeah.
Sarah (01:21)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sure does.
Yeah, here we are five months into the year.
Casey (01:27)
No, holy shit. You just said that out loud and I was like, it's almost halfway done. Oh.
Sarah (01:29)
Yeah.
It's almost halfway done.
Casey (01:34)
See.
Sarah (01:35)
This is why New Year's resolutions don't work because you blink and it's five months into the year and you're like, oh wait, I was gonna do X, Y, and Z and it's like, let's just live, live easy.
Casey (01:45)
I was about to say, you gotta do all those things and deal with stress and deal with change and it's too much. Let's just like check on what's happening in the now and then adjust.
Sarah (01:51)
It's way too much.
Yes, because there's a lot happening collectively in the now, but we won't talk about that today.
Casey (02:02)
Yeah,
no, no. We're doing the opposite. We're talking about checking out of all of that stuff today.
Sarah (02:07)
We
are, we are, good segue. We are talking about dissociation and when your body doesn't quite feel like home. Mm-hmm, yeah.
Casey (02:15)
Yes, one of our
most commonly discussed topics, I think, in the work we do, in the field we're in, but not often understood.
Sarah (02:21)
Probably. Yeah.
Yes, yes, like people use the term dissociate a lot maybe more so now than years ago probably because of the internet, But yeah, something that we talk about with clients a ton.
Casey (02:41)
And a lot of people
don't even notice they're doing it. So we should just start with what it is. Or what we perceive it to be, right?
Sarah (02:43)
truth.
Yeah, yeah.
Casey (02:50)
the way I would define it is it's the way in which our systems as a whole can detach from certain things. So that can be emotions, that can be our bodies, that can be our thoughts, that can be perception, anything. And it's a adaptive, protective, often involuntary
system function of the money. I tried not to sound too clinical, but I feel like that sounded a bit clinical. So as we get forward, I'll put it in simpler terms. Yes, we'll break it down.
Sarah (03:12)
Yes. Yes.
We'll break it way down. We'll break it way down, right? Yeah,
so it's a process the body does automatically without your awareness. Sometimes some awareness, often, most part, no awareness. so let's dive into it. There's a spectrum of dissociation. This might help break it down and define it a little bit. Let's talk about the spectrum.
Casey (03:34)
you
Yeah, the spectrum. So I think we know the one end of the spectrum, the more simpler forms of daydreaming, zoning out, scrolling on your phone, You're zoning into space, doing mindless things without being connected to the process, right? That's your most simple, and usually every single person on the planet will do that in some way somehow.
Sarah (03:47)
Mm.
yeah.
Casey (04:01)
I think of it as just like the brains break. It needs to recharge. I think of sleep as a form of dissociation, right? Some of our parts, our awareness to our bodies, to the world is shut off. And we need sleep to function. So I think of those in like the simpler form. Then you start to get into more fragmented forms of dissociation. So
depersonalization and derealization are also not uncommon, right? I think we say those words and they feel big and they feel like official and it's like, I think to a point they're very, more common than we think. So depersonalization, the greatest example I can give to clients is if you look in the mirror and are like, is that me? Is that me? Like, I'm...
Sarah (04:47)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Casey (04:49)
I don't recognize myself or is this how I've looked my whole life? I have personally experienced this one and I find it fascinating. When I wasn't a therapist, it wasn't very fascinating. It was kind of freaky. Very freaky. But now that I'm a therapist.
Sarah (04:57)
Mm-hmm.
Right, yeah. Well, we say things are fascinating.
It's like a different part of our brain set, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Casey (05:07)
Yes, yes, and
we can look back at our lives and look at this through a therapeutic mindset. But back in the day, it was kind of weird. And then derealization, which is kind of like your brain distorts reality. So things can look bigger or smaller. They can look like foggy. They can look a different color, or you can just not really perceive the world around you is actually happening.
So when I think about that biologically, the brain is shutting off certain pathways of our awareness. And so that is showing up in our visual nature, which is really cool when you think about it. The fact that we don't even have to do anything, the problem is sometimes that gets to be.
severe in nature in terms of acuity and in terms of it happening daily and impacting functioning and distressing folks. that's, know, even our spectrum has spectrums within the spectrum. Spectrum and spectrum, yeah, yeah, And then you get into the categories of PTSD, complex PTSD, and the symptoms that fall off of that, right? So we know that folks who have
Sarah (05:55)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, it's like spectrum and spectrum, right? Like this way and this way, this way and this way, ⁓
Casey (06:16)
those diagnoses have a smaller window of where they can tolerate things, stressors, activation. So they often fall into a hypo arousal mode, which is your shutdown response, which is involuntary and very protective. But what can happen is sometimes that can cause us to develop things like amnesia, not remembering certain things, not having recall of memory.
or that can just be happening in your daily life as well. Or you can have just more severe forms of dissociation in longer periods of time. And then you get into the more severe end of the spectrum, which is often due to PTSD or complex PTSD, which is your dissociative identity disorder, which used to be known as multiple personality disorder, which is the true fragment of certain
parts of yourself that have like very strict barriers. So we know them as parts or ulcers that can show up in front depending on what stressors are happening, what protections need to be put in place. And I often look at DID as one of the most protective mechanisms for severe, severe trauma, which I think what a gift.
Sarah (07:10)
Mm-hmm.
Casey (07:29)
at the time in which these things are happening. for people often, DID can be quite distressing as they move forward in life, ⁓ which can be tough.
Sarah (07:38)
Yes, yes,
So when we say that, let's break this down a little bit more. When we say that it's like protective, when trauma happens, let's get like nitty-gritty non-therapists speak about that. Like our systems do this thing, our bodies do this thing. Maybe I'll link to our window of tolerance PDF. This might help explain things a little bit just in terms of our nervous system and the way our bodies and our brains are designed to protect us.
Casey (07:50)
yes.
Sarah (08:04)
when overwhelming things happen. Let's like break that down nitty gritty if we can. Nitty gritty.
Casey (08:04)
Yes.
Yes, nitty gritty. ⁓
you know, we think of our window as like a window pane, right? In the window pane, there is glass and you can see through it and you can perceive and it's happy. I almost like, I tell my clients, like imagine nature, you know, something calming. That's like your zone where you can be present, be aware.
take in information, provide information. It's just your middle zone, right? But we are, as natural human beings, we have different modes of functioning depending on what we can handle, right? So stress, anxiety, anger, those things can kind of make us go, woo, up in the air, right?
Sarah (08:52)
Mm-hmm.
Casey (08:54)
And I talk about anger and anxiety being cousins, right? It's just like the same type of energy of the body, but it's just different, like different descriptor, different source. But if you are doing that for so long, I think about like running a marathon, right? If you're running a marathon day after day after day or hour after hour, your body just naturally needs a break. I can only handle that for so long. And in a way, I think it's life saving.
Sarah (09:02)
Mm-hmm.
Casey (09:20)
in a way, because that amount of stress on the body is really can be damaging. So our body kind of does this wave where it was down to the bottom. And that's where our shutdown lives. We can just kind of it's like I don't give a fuck anymore. Fuck it. I call it the fuck it energy sometimes where your body forces you in a way to detach.
Sarah (09:32)
Mm-hmm.
Casey (09:42)
It's too much, it's too overwhelming, it's exhausting, it's distressing. And it checks out. Now for some people, they fluctuate. So it can be like I'm up, down, up, down, up, down. For some people it's gradual. And then for some people, a lot of people, especially on the opposite end of the spectrum, it can be constantly in shutdown, constantly there.
And the more comfy we get there, the less tolerance we have for things. So thinking about depression, which is a, I think, lower spectrum safety zone. How hard is it to go brush your teeth when you're severely depressed? It's so hard. And so get out of bed. Anything. Get dressed.
Sarah (10:22)
Get out of bed. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Casey (10:27)
That's how hard it is sometimes for us to heal from these things. I don't know if that was in layman's terms. I tried.
Sarah (10:31)
Mm-hmm.
I think so.
I think so. No, no, I think so. Yeah, and our bodies do these things, again, without our conscious awareness, right? It's how things are registering in our bodies that really makes the difference, right? And that's not like a design flaw or anything. Like Casey said, it's actually really just the way that we survive as humans when overwhelming things happen. I'm kind of thinking about recently, a couple of months ago,
Casey (10:46)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah (10:57)
It's interesting to think about how this happened. I was in an Uber. I had gone out to a mom's night, and so I got an Uber home. And we were driving. I was talking to the Uber driver, whatever. And there was this car on the wrong side of the road approaching us. And it was interesting for myself because nothing actually happened. But in the moment, what my body did, was full system shutdown. It was a complete freeze. My body completely froze. And I sat there, and I was just waiting.
Casey (11:19)
Yes.
Sarah (11:25)
like what is going to happen and I was I was completely immobilized right afterwards like when the car went back to the right side of the road right the uber driver was like what the fuck is going on I'm done driving tonight right it was like 10 o'clock at night and I was like that was crazy right and so like my system restored things started like
Casey (11:26)
Mm-hmm.
good lord.
Sarah (11:43)
moving, right? If it had gone the other way, like, you know, who knows what the response could have been, right? My body, like, it shook out some energy, you know? So, like, just interesting. These are the things that our bodies do without our conscious awareness. Like, my brain was like, move, Sarah, right? Like, are you gonna, like, dog? Like, what are you gonna do, right? But literally, all systems shut down.
Casey (11:51)
Mm-hmm.
Right, right, well thank God we're okay. That's good. But I look at that and it makes me think of like a couple other things that I think people can relate to is like the involuntary nature and how frustrating that might seem, especially a freeze response, which I think can be a good way to describe it is your sympathetic nervous system is still activated, right? So you're still anxious or stressed or afraid, but.
Sarah (12:05)
Yeah, it was fun. Yes.
Bracing.
Casey (12:28)
Yes, but your parasympathetic
Sarah (12:29)
Bracing.
Casey (12:30)
nervous system is kind of over it, right? So it's, it's dampering your ability to move, to think, to process, which personally, I feel like is the scariest nervous system function to exist in. And I think a lot of people would agree, right? But in that moment, right, you can't jump out of the car.
Sarah (12:32)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Casey (12:52)
Right? You can't like move. can't, you're not the driver. So there's
so many different things that you're thinking, but your body immobilizes you for very protective reasons. But, you know, often people can blame themselves.
Sarah (13:03)
Yeah.
Casey (13:07)
for these functions because things happen around them that maybe they feel they could have prevented or suffering they could have avoided when in reality like your body knows what it's doing. You we talk a lot about the wisdom of the body, wisdom of our nervous system and that there's an intention behind every one of these functions for us as people specifically.
Sarah (13:09)
Yes.
Yeah.
Casey (13:30)
And then I also think like, especially dissociation is such a useful tool when leaving a dangerous situation is more dangerous than, you know, escaping out of your own brain. Yeah.
Sarah (13:43)
Yeah, yeah.
huh. Yeah, so if we look at it in the context of like childhood trauma, right, which I know a lot of people who come to
Casey (13:46)
So it's a very useful one.
Sarah (13:52)
our practice have experienced this idea of like things being too much, too overwhelming, right? Like maybe there's a threat, whether that's an emotional threat or a physical threat, right? And then the idea of like staying in that environment because there's no other option, right? It's a lot easier for the body to survive, for you to just kind of like detach from the body and kind of like go elsewhere, you know, float above for lack of
Casey (14:08)
Yes.
Absolutely.
Sarah (14:20)
a way.
Casey (14:21)
And activities can even match these behaviors, right? So, you know, reading or coloring or video games, like all of these things, but our bodies can just do it without those. But, you know, we have started to match different activities with that type of benefit too, which I think is useful. I hope everybody will learn at the end of this podcast that dissociation is not a bad thing.
Sarah (14:28)
reading.
Casey (14:44)
It's useful, we can participate in it, we can welcome it. Our bodies know what they need to do.
Sarah (14:50)
And there's a functional nature to it too, which we can talk about later. Talk about later. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So we just touched into why our brains or our bodies choose dissociation. Is there anything else you feel like we missed there?
Casey (14:55)
very functional.
Hmm.
Yeah. ⁓
Sarah (15:05)
Love that. Good.
Good. What about you? Was there, has there been like a moment where you realized like, shit, like I'm, I'm disconnected. I'm dissociated a little bit. Yeah, many. I think we all can.
Casey (15:14)
Yes, yes, many. I think, yeah, I think the one that I specifically
recognize is like college and like feeling like a robot. Like I just, I do the thing, but I don't actually remember doing it. And back when I was in college, was probably one of the more chaotic times in my life.
didn't have a lot of support, didn't have a lot of resources. And so I remember if I can look back at that today, I think assignment, paper, submit, go to work, bartend.
go to sleep, go to internship. There's no reference of friends. There's no reference of emotion. There's no reference of passion. There's no nothing. Like everything was turned off in my brain. My wants, my needs, weren't sleeping, wasn't eating, you know, all of the, anything that I needed to function was basically turned off.
But when I look back at that time, I have a mix, right? There's a mix of sadness that I didn't, and this was undergrad and grad school, that I didn't have the typical normal college experience. I didn't have the clubs and I didn't have friends and all of those things. And I think there's a grief involved with that. But I also think I look back and go, was there an option? And there really wasn't, right? I wouldn't have.
done well had I reconnected to all of these things that either couldn't be met, were not met, I couldn't achieve them in the space that I was in. So I kind of thanked my system for what it did. And I still graduated, there's that. Yeah.
Sarah (16:44)
Yeah. Still graduated. Still here. You're here.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think one that people hear about a lot or maybe can relate to the most is like when you're driving. You're driving, you're paddling along on the highway or whatever. And you look up and you're like, where am I?
Casey (16:58)
Yes.
Sarah (17:04)
Right? Like I passed my exit 10 miles ago, right? Where you're just like in the zone. You're just going like you're there. You're present. You're driving, but you're also somewhere else. Right? I'm sure you did. So many times. So many times.
Casey (17:05)
Mm-hmm.
Yes. Yes.
Oh God, I did that in the process of moving. we had done the journey. I don't even want to tell. I don't even want to talk about how many times we're
literally like, you know, my husband was also saying, like, I could have fallen asleep, woken back up and been at the house. Like, and I think there's just moments like, you know, our bodies are destined to re. Let me re let me rephrase that. I think we think.
Sarah (17:31)
Yeah.
Casey (17:41)
that we have to be conscious to be functional. And the reality is that a lot of the time we don't because we do have this reptilian part of our brain that can breathe and can pump our hearts and can digest. imagine if you had to remember to do all that. heaven help us all, Woof! Neither would I.
Sarah (17:48)
Yeah.
Yeah, right. Yeah. I wouldn't survive.
Casey (18:04)
But thinking about the driving one, is like we have so much stored information, whether it's this is the street, this is where I turn the wheel, this is what I look at, that you don't even know that you probably register. And so thinking about dissociation is just another way to appreciate the subconscious parts of the system. As we say, it's therapist fascinating.
Sarah (18:29)
Yes, yes, yes. Fascinating. So let's talk about subtle or sneaky signs of dissociation. Yeah, how do they show up? I mean, I think the driving one is a great one that people might miss. I'm also thinking about.
Casey (18:31)
Absolutely.
That was a good one.
Sarah (18:44)
like scrolling on the phone. know I, I do this, right? Like yesterday for a case, it was at my house at like what? 730 in the morning, eight o'clock in the morning. My kids are already like trying to push each other off the swing set. They're, they're gone, right? Already, already to that level. And I was like, Oh gosh, it's gonna be a long one today. Um, and then it rained all afternoon. So anyway, was sitting like sitting on a chair while my kids were like coloring this thing, scrolling my phone. Next thing I knew half hour later. And I was just like, where did that half hour go? Like there we are. There's
Casey (18:45)
scrolling of phones, so common.
Yeah.
They were rockin' and rollin', baby.
Yes.
huh.
Sarah (19:13)
subtle. Like just I was disconnected from the here. Like I was there, I was present, I was watching them color, making sure they weren't coloring on the walls and stuff, but like I was out.
Casey (19:22)
Hmm.
Yes. Yes. Which we all need sometimes, right? I think one that happens to me a lot, and I think it's overt because it happens to all the time, is like that sticky part where you are, it's like...
Sarah (19:25)
Mm-hmm.
Casey (19:38)
the mix between escapism and like the opposite end, is like meditative and grounded, right? Where like, I can make cooking dissociative, I can make reading dissociative, I can make knitting dissociative, like anything that I can meditate on and be grounded in, I can also on the other side be completely dissociated from.
which I think is things that people often experience and also something we can use to help ourselves because there is a branch tying the two together. So what often can keep you grounded can often help you dissociate and I think that's the body's natural rhythm and parallel that happens. So oftentimes I try
Sarah (20:21)
Mm-hmm.
Casey (20:24)
to be meditative or grounded in certain things. But sometimes I get to choose. Like, do I want to put that investment in today? No, so I won't. Video games is a huge one. Whether that's like, you know, Call of Duty or whether it's, you know, your Nintendo Switch or, you know, little games on your phone. Again, your memory and your recall is something you can connect with, but everything else can be turned off.
Sarah (20:43)
Mm-hmm.
Casey (20:50)
And it really depends, I think, to my understanding of what is overwhelming to you. So like sounds are extremely overwhelming to my husband. I could care less. I don't need to check out from noise.
Sarah (20:52)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Casey (21:03)
But I need to check out from like sensory overwhelm in terms of like being claustrophobic or too much touching or you know things of that nature which he could care less. So every system is a unique snowflake.
Sarah (21:15)
Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely. And then, so we just did like over. What about like on the the
end of the spectrum of dissociation, more dissociative disorders, more overt signs of dissociation. think that on TikTok it was trending for a while. Dissociative disorders, I don't know. We know that I'm not on TikTok. So I don't know. Here's a say. So maybe more overt signs that dissociation is maybe interfering with your life in a way that, I'm going say just,
Casey (21:36)
Neither am I.
Sarah (21:50)
to work and kind of like checking out for a couple of miles down the road, right? Like more symptoms of dissociative disorders.
Casey (21:56)
Yeah, yeah, and I think that's the one of the most tricky parts, at least for me as a clinician is like, when is that? When is that happening? Because I do have a bias right towards your protection and your autonomy and like whatever you function this long, right? But I think what I start to notice is the more
Sarah (22:12)
Yes.
Casey (22:17)
amnesia you experience, less fusing that happens within your system. So not being able to recall recent events or people in your life, especially if it's impacting work. If you're not being able to recall, then you're not being able to do your job. whether you're not, I think memory is the one that really
Sarah (22:39)
stands out.
Casey (22:39)
I see
a lot, but also like in terms of if you can't, some people, you know, have struggled so much in their life and have experienced so much trauma that they can't carry a conversation. Right? So if you're hearing a lot of, or you're saying yourself, what did you say? Or can you go back or, you know, I said that the other day. I don't remember.
because the brain can only handle what our system allows into it. So I think there is that little middle end of the spectrum that is between DID and more middle of the road every day kind of stuff. And I think that's the hardest because it's often misdiagnosed. And those are the clients that I am the first person to tell them, hey,
Sarah (23:12)
every day. Yeah.
Casey (23:23)
Like this is dissociation, this is what dissociation looks like, which is often the people who are feeling the most shame about how they function in the world. So I think the problem with, it's either the TikTok, right, which everyone's dissociating terribly and you need to do something about it, right, or it's not even being screened for.
Sarah (23:40)
Hit.
Casey (23:44)
And that is very scary to think about because, you know, it's a very sensitive system if it is highly dissociated. And we need to respect that.
Sarah (23:46)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And so all in all, really, if dissociation is something that you recognize that you do, or maybe you're like, I've heard about this, or I saw it on TikTok, or whatever it is, dissociation has likely saved your butt.
Casey (24:06)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Sarah (24:07)
in a number of ways. So when
we talk about the body not being a safe place to be, that book, Bessel's book, Bessel, The Body Keeps the Score, everyone has a body, the body keeps the score, right? Everyone's heard of it. But it's true that the body remembers, and often the body is stuck in time. So the body is stuck in a time where emotional overwhelm happened, it's bracing, it's freezing, you're disconnected. So often the body doesn't feel like a place
Casey (24:16)
⁓ the body keeps squirming.
Yes.
Sarah (24:35)
to
live because it's not registering that we're not there anymore, right? It's still in survival mode. So dissociation is really the way that many bodies have just learned to survive in the world. And what we have to do is slowly over time, if you choose to, reestablish like little glimmers of safety in the here and now. And that's super complicated. I'm sure we'll talk about it in another podcast at some point.
Casey (24:58)
Yeah, all of our topics usually need more than one podcast episode. Because then I started thinking about like attachment and dissociation, and I was like, oh, geez, that's another episode for sure. It's whole other episode. 101 today. But I think, you know, the main things that we're trying to...
Sarah (25:02)
Mm-hmm.
It's a whole yeah yeah we're doing we're doing 101 today.
Yes.
Casey (25:20)
you know, get out there is like educating yourself on the true what is true dissociation, not a tick tock fear mongering bullshit, right? It's very normal. But if you're noticing some of these symptoms, you deserve the space to explore that you deserve the space to understand what's happening, because some of this can be managed if a system wants that to be done.
Right, so like if you see that being disconcerting to you, which I remember a time in my life where it was disconcerting, but I didn't deal with it for probably another eight to 10 years. So there's no shame in saying, you know what, this is safe for me and I want to stay that way. It's okay.
Sarah (26:03)
So we're going to start a new segment on the podcast. It's called a hard truth moment. We're going to do it every episode. Hard truth. yeah. Surprise. Let's do a hard truth moment.
Casey (26:07)
Oh no! alright, let's do it!
Okay. Yeah, I do got it. I hate it. I hate that I'm saying, but it is, I feel so strongly about it. Healing from dissociation long-term is extremely difficult. It is, it is so fucking hard. It is not comfortable at all. We can make it tolerable enough, but your system is going to be
Sarah (26:19)
You got it? All right.
Yeah, so fucking hard.
Casey (26:40)
very, very stressed and very, scared. So I think of it as like, you're doing the hardest thing you've ever done with people to help you carry through. Does it mean it makes it easier? Probably not. It just makes it more tolerable. But the longer you've been dissociating, the more scary it is to get out of it because you don't go from dissociated to calm.
Sarah (26:53)
No.
Casey (27:04)
You go from dissociated to highly activated to then bring you to calm. So basically you ended up all the way down the road and we have to bring you back through the scary forest to get back to the other side. It is hard, it is slow. But I think people who struggle with that deserve to have the time and the space and the honesty of the work.
Sarah (27:25)
Yeah, that's a hard truth.
Casey (27:26)
Oh, that didn't feel good to say, but
it is so true. believe it in my bones, Sarah. I believe it in my bones.
Sarah (27:31)
Uh-huh, yeah, yeah, which is why, you know, as trauma therapists, we have lots of tools and lots of strategies and why we go to endless amounts of trainings to learn new ways to help people and support people.
to reenter and to come back and to be able to manage like little bits and pieces of distress over time. So it is the hard, it's like the work of a lifetime, right? And like it can be slow and it can be tolerable in ways and bits and pieces and it's really fucking hard.
Casey (28:05)
Yes. Yes. And
that sometimes it's just celebrating that micro win and maybe that's all you choose to do. And that's enough. Right? We're not, we don't have to totally unhaul the system. That's not always necessary. But I think, you know, I was thinking about like, what to offer people moving forward, right? It's like, how do you take small steps to?
to like support or move through dissociation. And I just think like what the world thinks is small versus what we think is small is light years away. So I've had certain clients or certain people that even myself, where I'm saying like, can we move a finger this much? Like literally a finger. Can we mobilize something?
Sarah (28:38)
Yes.
Casey (28:51)
Because I think it's really listening to your system specifically. Because for some people, right, as a therapist for a while I have been, I know, that's a weird way to say it. I couldn't even say it again if I tried. A therapist for a while I have been, that's weird. I know that I can.
Sarah (28:55)
Yep.
while.
Casey (29:11)
turn my dissociative activities into mindful ones. And I can do things like put music on, because that helps me connect. But like, that took time for me to be able to do. So I think for folks, things like orienting to your space. We know the five, four, three, two, one grounding, but that might be too big. Right? So sometimes I tell people, can you name three things in the room?
Not even five. Can you feel like your pants, the material of your pants? But sensory might be too much for people. So maybe we're looking at noises and volume. Can we connect to a noise? Can we connect to a music that feels safe? But for some people, their music is attached to their trauma. So now we're transitioning to a smell.
And I think the more you respect what your body is telling you, if it feels overwhelmed, if it feels stressed when you're trying to like ground, maybe today's not the day either. So it's a mix of a hard truth and a hope, I guess.
Sarah (30:09)
And to go along those lines, we've created a little freebie for today's episode about, it's called Tiny Little Bridges. And it's just like tiny ways to bridge back to the body if dissociation is something that you're learning about or identifying as part of your story. So.
Casey (30:14)
So far hello.
Sarah (30:26)
And we're going to drop it into the show notes and go and grab it because it's just, you know, really gentle practices, a couple of like reflection things from today's episode and the blog post that we're going to link to. along with Casey's Hope, maybe some tangible practices to go along with that.
Casey (30:43)
It's hard and it's hopeful to mix.
Sarah (30:45)
Yes,
absolutely, absolutely. Okay, send us off? I know, that was a lot. Yes, we will, we will. And be sure to follow on Instagram, @reclaimtherapy because gonna start putting more of this content out on that account.
Casey (30:49)
I think that was plenty. We'll have future episodes, don't you worry.
Sarah (31:04)
So be sure to follow on Instagram, grab the tiny bridges little freebie that we have in the show notes. And yeah, I guess that's all I got. Let us know what questions you have. We can do a follow up episode if people have questions because I feel like this is a big one. We tried to break it way down.
Casey (31:14)
Yes. ⁓
Yes, yes. Please, questions. We could do a Q &A. I think it's especially important with this topic. mean, any questions you have, we're willing to answer.
Sarah (31:25)
Yeah,
yeah. All right, Casey. Thanks.
Casey (31:28)
Cool! You're
welcome, thank you!
Sarah (31:31)
All right, everybody, we will be back next week. So until then, take good care.
Reclaim Therapy is a group of trauma therapists that provide therapy for PTSD, EMDR Therapy and therapy for Complex PTSD.
Our team is passionate about helping people reclaim their lives from diet culture, body shame and the impact of trauma.
We would love to support you as you Reclaim YOU and the life that you undeniably deserve.