Dissociation, Mindfulness, & Emotion Regulation By Chelsea Geyer

Regulation is defined as a person’s ability to control the intensity and response to their emotions. Understanding the different ways we can regulate our emotions is an important part of living a more calm, stable, and comfortable life!

According to research by Dr. Bruce Perry (2012), self-regulation can be split into three categories: dissociation, cortical regulation, and self-soothing. Today we are going to focus on dissociation and cortical regulation.

Dissociation is basically the polar opposite of mindfulness. It is when we are truly disconnected from the present moment, and this can really occur across a spectrum. We all dissociate at various times throughout the day. Our brains can only take in so much information, and dissociation helps us by giving our brains a break.

A certain amount of dissociation is normal. For example, sometimes when we are at work, we might catch ourselves briefly staring off into space and allowing our minds to wander. Some people may refer to this mind-wandering as “daydreaming” – you might remember getting in trouble for this during school as a child, but daydreaming is actually a healthy and powerful tool.

Another example of a healthy type of dissociation is reading. These regulating activities give our brains and bodies some time to disconnect from the current moment and process what we have experienced throughout the day. There are times when dissociation can cause issues with how we show up in our lives, and this is important to work through with a mental health professional. To learn more about signs of unhealthy dissociation, see Reannon Ketabian’s blog post “What the heck is dissociation”.

Cortical regulation essentially means using our “thinking” brain to regulate ourselves. Cortical refers to the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of our brain right behind our forehead; it is responsible for problem solving, empathy, and judgment (just to name a few!). For most of us, when we think of self-regulation, we think of cortical regulation. Cortical regulation strategies might include using self-talk to get us through a situation or recognizing our reactions in the moment and reasoning through what we should do next. It is our ability to practice self-control by using our brains to work through a problem in the moment.

Next time, I will introduce another regulation technique that focuses on a different, more primitive, part of our brain. I’ll explain more about this part of the brain and provide self-soothing strategies through a type of regulation known as somatosensory.

Do you want to explore your regulation skills and how you can make them work for you? Contact Chelsea Geyer at chelseageyerlcsw@gmail.com or 619-630-7838.

For more information on Dr. Bruce Perry’s work and the Neurosequential Network, visit:

https://www.neurosequential.com

References:

Neurosequential Network. (2012, Winter). Winter 2012 Series #2. Vimeo.