Dissociation Isn't What You Think: DID, Structural Dissociation & Therapist Confidence with Kathy Steele

About this episode

Kathy Steele discusses dissociation, its implications for therapy, and how clinicians can approach clients with DID and complex trauma.

Have you ever slipped so far into a daydream that you felt detached from reality, your emotions, or your sense of self? Brief moments of dissociation are understandable and can even preserve our mental well-being in times of intense stress. Persistent dissociation, however, is something else entirely. It's a maladaptation that often hints at layers of complex trauma—and that can intimidate therapists. One clinician invites us to reconnect with the deeply human experience of "spacing out" and remain curious about the mind's capacity to protect and survive before referring our clients to another practitioner. On this episode of Transforming Trauma , host Emily Ruth invites trauma and dissociation specialist Kathy Steele, MN, CS, to share professional observations from her 40+ years of experience working with clients, supervising therapists, and developing treatment guidelines for dissociative disorders and complex PTSD. While Kathy acknowledges that it's unsettling the first time a therapist encounters DID, she reaffirms that clinicians have the basic skills to begin treating those clients. "These are normal defenses that anybody would develop in the face of severe trauma. They…

People in this episode

Host: Emily Ruth

Guest: Kathy Steele

Topics covered

• dissociation
• DID
• structural dissociation
• therapist confidence
• complex trauma
• mental health

Keywords

• dissociation
• DID
• complex PTSD
• therapist skills
• mental well-being
• trauma treatment

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Complex Trauma Training Center

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