Navigating Dissociation in the Healing Journey of Complex PTSD

The Limitations of "Overcoming" Trauma

When you are suffering, your "wanting to solve it" mechanism automatically kicks in. When you suffer emotionally, it is felt viscerally. It sits in the body and the body isn't a happy place to be in right then. This is particularly true when it comes to healing from complex PTSD. The process of recovering from complex PTSD can be difficult and overwhelming.

What happens is that at those moments of activation, your energy gets pushed upwards into thoughts, into thinking and busyness. It produces racing thoughts that might go back to the past and replay over and over what happened to you. It goes into analyzing the why of it all and how to possibly get rid of it, be done with it, get away from it and so on and so forth. This is a natural response when it comes to healing from complex PTSD, as the mind tries to make sense of the trauma and find a way to overcome it.

When you are suffering your "wanting to solve it" mechanism automatically kicks in. When you suffer emotionally it is felt viscerally. It sits in the body and the body isn't a happy place to be in right then.


In short; what happened to you gets a lot of meaning attached to it. It can’t be otherwise as with any post-traumatic period or incidence; it has been overwhelming to you. You have lost your sense of safety, healthy control and experienced a sense of helplessness. This is a common experience for those recovering from complex PTSD.

How Dissociation Perpetuates Trauma and Prevents Healing

That movement of emotionally feeling overwhelmed, that goes into excessive thoughts and "meaning giving", through some form of judgment, is dissociation. This dissociation is a coping mechanism that helps to protect the individual from the emotional pain of the trauma, but it can also prevent healing from complex PTSD.

The difficulty of dissociation is that you get further caught up in what your thoughts tell you to do and these are often impossibilities. You can’t undo your past. What happened to you happened. You also can’t change other people or set them straight even if you feel the urge to do so by wanting revenge or justice. And this is a conundrum when it comes to healing from complex PTSD.

Moving Away from a "Pain Identity" Towards Healing

Your thoughts give meaning to what happened to you infused by some form of guilt, blame, self-reproach, shame, embarrassment, comparison, jealousy, pride, self-righteousness or regret. Those thoughts create an identity around the hurt you have experienced or might still be experiencing. This is a natural response when it comes to recovering from complex PTSD, as the mind tries to make sense of the trauma and find a way to overcome it.

To move away from that hurt is to part from the identity you have created, out of necessity, around that hurt or within that hurt. And this is tough because we want validation of our hurt, we want justice, we want to hold on to blame or self-righteousness or any of the above because it helped to keep us afloat however painful it has been. This is a difficult process when it comes to healing from complex PTSD.

The Power of Negating Thoughts and Shifting Energy Towards Healing from Complex PTSD

You really can’t overcome trauma, get rid of it, be done with it or solve it. It is a wrong approach that comes out of a natural survival mechanism for looking for a solution. Instead, the focus should be on healing from complex PTSD and recovering from complex PTSD.

your thoughts of wanting to solve it, overcome it, get rid of it, that connects you with the body and this is going to be a little hard because you are negating your pain identity around your hurt as well. This is a crucial step in the healing process from complex PTSD and recovering from complex PTSD.

Though it really is the only way forward to start to heal as you are shifting your energy and the importance you have put onto your hurt to another plane altogether. This shift in perspective and energy is essential in the process of healing from complex PTSD and recovering from complex PTSD.

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  • Raquel says:

    Thank you

  • Hele says:

    To what do we shift our energy? What would be that powerful substitute? God perhaps?

    • Roland says:

      Once any overwhelming emotion is contained, released or processed – that energy will have moved into presence, silence, awareness or whatever word you want to give to it. It is not a substitute, it is your natural state of being.

  • Trixie says:

    Is it possible to begin the process of healing when a person is still in on-going traumatic situation?

  • Snezana says:

    Thank you thank you THANK YOU !

  • J D Castellazzi says:

    I can totally relate to what you have said. Thank you Roland, it’s so hard to put those pieces together and put it into words.

  • Harry says:

    What about emdr/eft? That is also allowing the feelings to flow through and I think it is effective for trauma.

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