ABSTRACT
Working with dissociation is a complex ®eld and can refer to all three levels of dissociation described earlier in Point 38. We see as crucial to this process the gradual reintegration of sensations, feelings and memories so that the client can create a coherent dialogue of their signi®cant experiences. In the safety of a sound therapeutic alliance, dissociation will gradually become more manifest and dissociated memories and sequestered ego states will usually begin to emerge on their own. Body awareness techniques can be used after careful negotiation with the client about pacing these just at the margins of the client's tolerance limits. These can include a focus of the awareness on different parts of the body; giving these `a voice' and a place in awareness so that the client can recover dissociated experiences in a `felt' sense. It is also helpful to notice with the client the moment at which she `phases out' and track back to that point to establish what she was experiencing just before she dissociated. In this way the triggers for dissociation can gradually be identi®ed and the feelings that are being excluded can gently be brought into awareness. As Ogden et al. (2006) point out, the objective is to restore the internal locus of control so that the therapist and client ®rst collaborate `to notice, to track, observe, consider, translate, and experiment with the action tendency of freezing' (p. 172). The client is then supported to make conscious choices and, rather than comply passively, engage in more adaptive actions.
