Abstract
Dissociative processes in children are frequently misinterpreted as behavioral, attentional, or relational difficulties. From an attachment- and developmentally informed perspective, these processes can be understood as adaptive responses to early relational deprivation. The physical and psychological unavailability of the caregiver constitutes a traumatic condition that disrupts the child’s developmental trajectory across multiple domains, giving rise to dissociative reactions that cluster into distinct trauma-related self-states.

These early forms of fragmentation often remain unrecognized, as they are primarily expressed through bodily, nonverbal, play-based, and relational patterns and may go unnoticed even when manifesting in verbal narratives through disruptions in coherence, perspective, and affect. As a result, dissociation in children is often overlooked or misattributed, particularly when it presents in subtle, shifting, and context-dependent ways.

This workshop introduces a developmentally differentiated framework for understanding early dissociation, linking fragmentation to disruptions across affective, somatic, and relational domains. Particular emphasis is placed on the therapist’s capacity to track moment-to-moment shifts in the child’s state as markers of emerging self-state organization, both in the interpersonal field and in the child’s internal experience.

Through clinical case material, participants will learn to identify micro-indicators of fragmentation, including sudden shifts in affect, discontinuities in behavior and narrative, and changes in relational engagement. The emergence of distinct self-states with differing emotional, somatic, and relational tendencies will be explored as a dynamic and context-sensitive process.
Interventions focus on the therapeutic relationship as a primary medium for restoring relational availability, supporting co-regulation, and facilitating communication between dissociative self-states. Emphasis is placed on attuned, regulating, and organizing responses that support the reconstruction of disrupted developmental processes.
By integrating theory with clinical practice, this workshop equips clinicians to recognize early dissociative processes with greater precision and to intervene in ways that promote continuity of experience, relational engagement, and the development of regulatory capacities.