What Is Dissociation? Why It’s Often Missed in Therapy

Introduction

Many people enter therapy with long histories of anxiety, depression, emotional overwhelm, or repeated treatment failures. What often goes unrecognized is dissociation—a trauma-based response that affects memory, identity, emotions, and the body.

At CARE Counseling, Inc., we specialize in recognizing and treating dissociation so therapy can move forward safely and effectively.

What Is Dissociation?

Dissociation is not zoning out or daydreaming. Clinically, it refers to involuntary disruptions in memory, identity, emotion, perception, or bodily experience that develop as survival adaptations to trauma.

Dissociative experiences may include:

• Memory gaps or “lost time”

• Feeling unreal or disconnected from your body

• Strong emotional shifts that feel sudden or unexplained

• Internal conflict or feeling “like different parts of me want different things”

These symptoms are often internal and invisible to others, which is why dissociation is frequently overlooked.

Why Dissociation Is Commonly Missed

Many standard mental health assessments do not ask about dissociative experiences. As a result, clients may be diagnosed with:

• Depression

• Anxiety disorders

• Bipolar disorder

• Borderline personality traits

…without addressing the underlying dissociative structure driving symptoms.

When dissociation is not identified, trauma-focused treatments may feel destabilizing or ineffective.

CARE Counseling’s Approach

We use advanced trauma assessment tools and a phase-oriented treatment model to ensure safety before trauma processing begins. Therapy is paced, collaborative, and attuned to your internal experience.

Serving clients in Naperville, Plainfield, and surrounding suburbs (including Aurora, Oswego, Bolingbrook, Lisle, Wheaton, and Downers Grove) with in-person and telehealth therapy across Illinois.