Healing Dissociation & Trauma in Birmingham, AL
Reconnect with your body, your memory, and your life through neuroscience-based therapy.
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Dissociation is the brain's ultimate escape hatch. When trauma is too overwhelming to process, the mind disconnects from the body or the memory to survive. At Taproot Therapy Collective, we understand that dissociation isn't "crazy"—it is a brilliant, biological survival strategy.
However, when the danger has passed, staying disconnected prevents you from living a full life. Serving Birmingham, Mountain Brook, and Hoover, we use advanced modalities to help you safely "thaw out" the freeze response and reclaim your presence.
⚡ Brain Health & Dissociation
Chronic dissociation can be linked to neuroinflammation. We partner with Hardy Nutritionals to provide clinical micronutrients that support brain connectivity.
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The Neuroscience of "Checking Out"
Dissociation involves the Default Mode Network (DMN) and the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. When these areas go offline, you may experience:
- Depersonalization: Feeling like you are watching yourself from outside your body.
- Derealization: The world feels foggy, dreamlike, or fake.
- Dissociative Amnesia: Losing time or having blank spots in your memory.
Using QEEG Brain Mapping, we can often see these patterns and target them directly.
Evidence-Based Treatments for Dissociation
You cannot "talk" your way out of dissociation because the verbal brain is often offline. We use bottom-up therapies to engage the body first.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Dissociation is often a job performed by a "Protector" part of you. In IFS, we don't fight the dissociation; we thank it for protecting you, which paradoxically allows it to relax.
Brainspotting
Brainspotting locates the eye position where the dissociation "lives" in your brain. It allows for the processing of deep trauma without requiring you to verbally relive the event, preventing re-traumatization.
Somatic Trauma Mapping
We help you slowly build tolerance for bodily sensations. By mapping where you feel numb vs. where you feel safe, we expand your "Window of Tolerance" so you can stay present.
Lifespan Integration
Dissociation fragments your timeline. Lifespan Integration uses a visual timeline of your life to "prove" to your nervous system that the trauma is over, integrating the fragmented memories into a coherent story.
The Dissociation Spectrum
Dissociation is rarely a standalone issue. We treat it alongside:
- Complex PTSD (C-PTSD): The result of chronic, repeated trauma where escape was impossible.
- Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Often misdiagnosed, BPD symptoms can actually be severe dissociative structural issues.
- Conversion Disorder: When emotional pain becomes physical blindness, paralysis, or seizures (PNES).
Meet Our Dissociation Specialists
Alice Hawley, LPC, LMFT
Specializes in Jungian Shadow Work and creative therapies to integrate fragmented parts of the self.
Pamela Hayes, MSW LMSW
Expert in IFS and Somatic Experiencing via Telehealth, helping clients safely reconnect with their bodies from home.
Marie Danner, LICSW, CCTP-II
A Certified Clinical Trauma Professional utilizing Brainspotting and Lifespan Integration to heal structural dissociation.
It Is Safe to Be Here Now
Recovery means coming home to yourself. We can help you find the way back.
Schedule a Trauma Assessment