Is Structural Dissociation Part of Your Story? A Letter from Your Therapist
Dear Client,
I want to share something with you today that might help connect a few dots if you’ve ever felt like “parts” of you operate separately—like different versions of yourself show up depending on the situation. Maybe one part of you feels calm and functional, while another holds pain or fear. Maybe you’ve felt like you’re living in two worlds at once: one that’s managing, and one that’s stuck in the past. If this resonates, I invite you to learn about something called structural dissociation.
What Is Structural Dissociation?
Structural dissociation is a way the mind adapts to overwhelming or traumatic experiences. When something deeply distressing happens—especially in childhood, when the brain is still developing—the mind may separate experiences into “parts” to survive. Instead of integrating all aspects of life into one cohesive sense of self, the psyche compartmentalizes.
This doesn’t mean you have “multiple personalities” in the Hollywood sense. It means your nervous system may have developed separate ways of functioning to cope with pain, fear, or unmet needs. These “parts” aren’t imaginary—they’re real emotional states with their own memories, thoughts, and reactions.
There are two main types of parts in this model:
- Feeling numb or detached in some situations, but flooded with emotion in others
- Knowing something happened to you, but feeling like it happened to someone else
- Struggling to recall parts of your past, or feeling like it’s “foggy”
- Having conflicting inner voices or urges that don’t seem to align
- Feeling young, vulnerable, or frightened out of nowhere
If any of this sounds familiar, structural dissociation may be playing a role in how you’re experiencing the world—and yourself.
Why Does Structural Dissociation Happen?
It’s often a response to trauma, particularly early or repeated trauma, such as:
- Childhood abuse or neglect
- Growing up in a chronically unsafe or unpredictable environment
- Emotional or attachment wounds where caregivers were unavailable, frightening, or inconsistent
- Single-incident trauma that overwhelmed your capacity to cope
When there’s no safe way to process overwhelming experiences, the mind’s solution is to “split the load”—so one part carries the pain, and another tries to live life. This is not a weakness. It’s an incredible survival mechanism.
Is This Me?
Only you can say for sure, but here are some questions to gently reflect on:
- Do I feel like there are different “versions” of me in different situations?
- Do I sometimes not feel fully present, or like I’m watching life from the outside?
- Are there parts of my history I avoid thinking about—or can’t access?
- Do I experience sudden, intense emotional shifts that are hard to explain?
- Do I feel like there’s a tug-of-war inside me about how to handle things?
If you’re nodding yes, know this: you are not alone, and you’re not “broken.” Your mind created a structure to help you survive. Now, together, we can begin to gently understand and heal it.
How Is Structural Dissociation Treated?
Healing doesn’t mean erasing these parts. It means building bridges between them—so you can live with more wholeness, self-compassion, and freedom.
Treatment often involves:
- Stabilization and safety: Building resources for emotional regulation, grounding, and establishing internal safety
- Parts work: Learning to listen to and care for your inner parts (often through therapies like Internal Family Systems or EMDR)
- Processing trauma: When ready, gently integrating traumatic memories and sensations so they no longer have to be carried alone by one part
- Integration: Supporting cooperation and connection between your parts, so your system can function as a whole
Jennifer Taun MSW RSW
Learn more about Parenting:
Meet Pam & Elisa
Co-Owners of Restful Parenting
At Restful Parenting, we bring you over 15 years of experience working with children of all ages and their parents. We are both Early Childhood Educators and Infant and Child Sleep Consultants and have extensive experience in early childhood development as well as a natural ability to understand children and their sleep.
