EP 249: Behaviors as Brilliant Adaptations with Sally Maslansky

Content warning: This episode includes discussion of severe trauma, abuse (including sexual abuse), dissociation, and suicidal ideation. Please take care while listening and pause if needed.

In today’s episode, Robyn is joined by therapist, author, and adoptive parent Sally Maslansky to explore dissociative identity disorder through the lens of interpersonal neurobiology, attachment, and compassion. Together, they unpack how even the most confusing and baffling behaviors- ours and our children’s - can be understood as brilliant adaptations rooted in survival.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why dissociative identity disorder can be understood as a brilliant adaptation to overwhelming early trauma
• How making sense of our own histories (especially implicit memory and attachment wounds) changes the way we parent and repair ruptures with our kids.
• What it looks like, in real life, to heal through connection, compassion, and feeling truly felt- and how these experiences invite our attachment systems to move toward security

Resources Mentioned on the Podcast

• A Brilliant Adaptation by Sally Maslansky
• Virtual event with Sally Maslansky hosted by GAINS on January 21
• Sally Maslansky, LMFT with Daniel J. Siegel, MD- UCLA Friends of Semel Institute on March 11
• Psychotherapy Networker Symposium- Live in Washington D.C. & Online March 19-21

Read the full transcript at: https://RobynGobbel.com/brilliantadaptations

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