Dissociation in Therapy

An interview with Dr. Jamie Marich on how to navigate through dissociation in the therapy room. Curt and Katie interview Jamie about her own experiences with dissociation and what she does to cope as a dissociative professional. We discuss the importance of mindfulness and other strategies to take care of ourselves as well as treating dissociative clients. We also chat about how to navigate professional organizations as someone who likes to challenge the status quo.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. We are human beings who can now present ourselves as whole people, with authenticity, purpose, and connection. Especially now, when therapists must develop a personal brand to market their practices.

To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

Interview with Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, LICDC-CS, REAT, RYT-200, RMT

Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, LICDC-CS, REAT, RYT-200, RMT travels internationally speaking on topics related to EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, expressive arts and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice in her home base of Warren, OH. She is the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness practice to expressive arts therapy and co-creator of the Yoga Unchained approach to trauma-informed yoga. Jamie is the author of seven books, including the popular EMDR Made Simple and EMDR Therapy and Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care (Springer Publishing in 2018), written in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Dansiger. Her newest title, Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery, released in April 2019. North Atlantic Books is publishing a second and expanded edition of Trauma and the 12 Steps, due for release in the Summer of 2020.

In this episode we talk about:

• Creative mindfulness
• Joy in facilitating transformation
• Jamie’s experience with trauma, addiction, dissociation, and how that led to her work
• EMDR and “the weird stuff” that has led to improved outcomes
• The power of embodied healing
• Jamie coming out as being in recovery, bisexual, and struggling with dissociation
• The response of other therapists to Jamie coming out as a dissociative professional
• The importance of being candid to remain present and to combat the label of impaired therapist
• Shame about dissociation and the difficulty therapists have in treating dissociation
• How to navigate through dissociation as a therapist – we all dissociate, just at different degrees
• The importance of mindfulness in combatting dissociation
• Rituals and routines to ground and return to the present
• Learning the models for treatment and then “breaking the rules elegantly” to innovate
• How institutes develop effectively and the struggles of bringing treatment to the mainstream
• Jamie’s standing up and pushing away from the mainstream – and some of the consequences
• Why Jamie and Curt love EMDR