June Monthly Forum with Janina Fisher

Why does trauma result in fragmentation? Because traumatic experiences are too overwhelming to be tolerated or processed, especially by a child’s still developing brains. The mental ability of dissociation provides a way for children to mentally distance from what is happening. The child watches from a distance and observes what is happening to that other child. Fragmenting helps us to survive the moment and, in traumatic environments, becomes a chronic response to ongoing danger facing the individual every day. Understanding the effects of trauma rather than focusing on the events that caused them opens up a new pathway to healing even for survivors who have had many years of therapy. Rather than pathologizing trauma-related symptoms and the parts that carry them, the Trauma-Informed

Stabilization Treatment approach emphasizes a mindfulness-based acceptance of the implicit memories of parts. By helping clients befriend their wounded, vulnerable parts and their darkest, most destructive parts,…