Dissociative Identities: Attachment-Based Approaches to Psychotherapy

Dissociative Identities draws on expertise from practitioners and survivors to explore therapeutic approaches to dissociation resulting from complex trauma. The contributors provide a vivid insight into what it is like for therapist and survivor to be alongside one another in the therapy room. They highlight the challenges of work with the fragmented internal worlds of those who have survived attachment trauma and explore together what approaches can promote healing and repair.

Dissociative identity is reframed from being a disorder to an essential survival skill, and the book includes an open recognition from the perspective of both therapist and survivor of relational challenges, pitfalls, and their impact on the healing process.

Dissociative Identities will be invaluable for all professionals working with survivors of complex trauma, including psychotherapists, nurses, social workers, clinical psychologists, and counsellors. It will also be of interest to survivors and their networks.

Sue Richardson is a member of The Bowlby Centre and a UKCP registered attachment-based psychotherapist and supervisor.

Melanie Goodwin is an expert by experience and co-founder of First Person Plural, an organization which raised awareness and provided training and support for people with dissociative conditions and their allies from 1997 until its closure in 2023.

Emma Jack is a Minster Centre trained relational psychotherapist. She is Clinical Director for The Clinic for Dissociative Studies.

Michele Jowett is an expert by experience as a person living with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Committed to sharing her experiences of dissociation and informing professionals through writing for the ESTD, ISSTD and FPP newsletters, she was instrumental in producing The Survivors Trust resources website.