Care for DID, OSDD, and Living With Dissociation
Dissociative Disorders Therapy in Pasadena, California
Dissociative disorders, such as dissociative identity disorder (DID), other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD), and depersonalization/derealization, are the mind and body's response to overwhelming, often early and repeated, trauma. Dissociation is not a flaw or a sign that something is wrong with you. It is one of the most intelligent things a nervous system can do to survive what no one should have to survive. Holistic Trauma Therapy® offers specialist, ISST-D-trained care for dissociative disorders in Pasadena and virtually throughout California, led by Chief Traumatologist Seema Sharma, SEP, LMFT.
Why dissociation happens — and why it is not a malfunction
Dissociation exists on a spectrum, and everyone moves along it. The mild end is ordinary: daydreaming, driving a familiar route on autopilot, losing yourself in a book.
A dissociative disorder develops when that same protective capacity had to be used early, often, and at great intensity — usually in response to chronic childhood trauma that a child could not escape and could not change. When a situation is unbearable and inescapable, the mind does something remarkable: it creates distance. It separates what is happening from what is felt, what is known from what is remembered, one part of self from another. That separation is not damage. It is a survival strategy — one that very likely allowed you to keep going when staying present was not survivable.
The difficulty is that survival strategies do not always know when the danger has passed. What once protected you may now be keeping you from feeling safe, connected, and whole in a life that is no longer dangerous. Healing is not about erasing those protective parts. It is about helping them learn that the emergency is over.
UNDERSTANDING THE WOUND
You may have spent a long time wondering if something is wrong with you
You lose time. You arrive somewhere and cannot fully account for how you got there. There are gaps — in your memory, in your day, in your sense of who you were an hour ago.
Sometimes you feel unreal, as if you are watching your own life through glass. Sometimes the world itself looks flat, far away, or staged. Sometimes you notice that different parts of you seem to want different things, hold different feelings, even carry different names — and you have learned not to say that out loud, because of how people might look at you.
You may be highly capable. You may hold a demanding job, a family, responsibilities that depend on you. From the outside, you function. Inside, you are managing something most people around you cannot see, and you have been managing it, quietly, for a very long time.
If any of this feels familiar, please know two things. You are not broken. And you are not alone in this.
RECOGNIZING THE CONDITION
Understanding the dissociative spectrum
Dissociative disorders are recognized clinical conditions, and naming them accurately can itself bring relief. At Holistic Trauma Therapy®, we work with the full spectrum:
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The presence of two or more distinct parts or self-states, along with gaps in memory for everyday events, personal information, or trauma. DID is more common than most people believe and is frequently misdiagnosed — often as bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, or a psychotic disorder — before dissociation is correctly recognized.
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Significant, distressing dissociative experiences that do not meet the full criteria for DID. Many people with OSDD experience distinct parts without the same degree of amnesia or "lost time." OSDD is real, valid, and treatable — and it deserves the same care and seriousness as DID.
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Persistent or recurring experiences of feeling detached from yourself (depersonalization) or from the world around you (derealization) — the sense of being unreal, robotic, or behind glass.
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An inability to recall important personal information, usually connected to trauma or stress, beyond ordinary forgetting.
You do not need a diagnosis in hand to reach out. Many people who contact us suspect they are dissociating but have never had language for it, or have been afraid of what naming it might mean. Part of careful, specialist care is helping you understand your own experience accurately, at a pace your nervous system can tolerate.
How we work with dissociative disorders
Effective care for dissociative disorders is not improvised. It follows a phased, well-established framework — the approach recognized by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISST-D) as the consensus standard. Healing moves through stages, and it moves at the pace of your safety, never ahead of it.
Safety and stabilization first. Before anything else, we focus on the present: building internal safety, grounding skills, and a steady working relationship. We get to know your system as it is — including the parts that protect you, the parts that carry pain, and the parts that are not yet sure therapy is safe. Nothing is rushed. Trauma processing is never the first step, and it is never forced.
Working with traumatic memory, when you are ready. Only once there is genuine stability do we turn, gently and collaboratively, toward the experiences underneath the dissociation — so that the past can begin to feel like the past.
Integration and a fuller life. As parts of you come to trust one another and the present, the separation between them softens. Integration is never something a therapist imposes. Whether your goal is full integration or functional multiplicity — internal communication, cooperation, and shared cooperation across your system — that choice is always yours.
Within this framework, our care is integrative and whole-person. Parts work (Internal Family Systems) offers a respectful, non-pathologizing way to meet and understand every part of your internal system. Somatic therapy addresses dissociation where it actually lives — in the body and nervous system — helping you build the felt sense of safety that thinking alone cannot reach. EMDR, used carefully and only within a stabilized, dissociation-informed frame, can support the reprocessing of traumatic memory. And a depth and transpersonal perspective holds space for the questions of identity, meaning, and self that living with dissociation inevitably raises.
What makes Holistic Trauma Therapy® different
THE HOLISTIC DIFFERENCE
Dissociative disorders ask a great deal of a therapist. They require specialized training, patience, steadiness, and a genuine respect for the intelligence of dissociation itself.
Holistic Trauma Therapy® is led by Chief Traumatologist Seema Sharma, SEP, LMFT. Her preparation for this work is specific and deep: the ISST-D Advanced Professional Trauma Training, a three-year, rigorous program dedicated to the assessment and treatment of complex trauma and dissociative disorders; IFS training through the IFS Institute, the parts-work foundation of dissociation care; certified training in Somatic Experiencing training developed by Peter Levine's institute; and EMDR for trauma reprocessing through the ISST-D. Her doctoral work in transpersonal and depth psychology adds a framework for the questions of self and identity that dissociation raises.
What this means for you… dissociation is not a niche we added. It is a specialty held by the practice's most extensively trained clinician — met with both clinical rigor and real warmth.
We are also a whole-person practice. We do not reduce you to a diagnosis or a set of symptoms. We hold the mind, the body, the nervous system, your relationships, and your sense of meaning together, because that is where dissociation actually lives and that is where healing actually happens.
Who this is for…
This work may be a good fit if you:
Have been diagnosed with DID, OSDD, depersonalization/derealization, or dissociative amnesia, and want a specialist who works at depth
Suspect you may be dissociating but have never had language or a clear diagnosis
Lose time, experience memory gaps, or notice distinct parts or self-states
Have been misdiagnosed before dissociation was recognized
Feel chronically unreal, detached, numb, or "behind glass"
Are high-functioning on the outside while managing something invisible on the inside
Have been hurt by past therapy that minimized, sensationalized, or felt unsafe — and need to begin slowly, with care
What clients may begin to experience…
Healing from a dissociative disorder is gradual, and it is real. Over time, with specialist support, many clients describe more moments of feeling present and grounded, fewer and less frightening gaps, growing internal communication and cooperation between parts, a steadier sense of self, and — often for the first time in a very long time — the experience of feeling genuinely safe inside their own life.
Holistic Trauma Therapy® serves clients in person in Pasadena — accessible to South Pasadena, San Marino, Altadena, Los Angeles, and the wider San Gabriel Valley — and virtually for adults throughout California. For dissociative disorders, in-person and virtual care can both be effective; we will talk through what is right for you, and what your stability and safety call for, during your consultation.
Dissociative disorders therapy in Pasadena and across California
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Both involve distinct parts or self-states, and both are valid, serious, and treatable. The main difference is that people with OSDD generally do not experience the same degree of amnesia or "lost time" between parts that is characteristic of DID. OSDD is not a "lesser" condition — it deserves the same specialist care.
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No. Many people who contact us suspect they are dissociating but have never had a clear diagnosis or language for their experience. Part of careful, specialist care is helping you understand your own experience accurately and gently. You are welcome to begin with questions.
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No. Integration is never something a therapist imposes. Some clients move toward full integration; others work toward functional multiplicity — internal communication, cooperation, and trust between parts. That choice is always yours, and care moves at the pace of your safety.
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Care for dissociative disorders is generally longer-term and follows a phased approach — safety and stabilization first, then trauma processing when you are ready, then integration. There is no fixed timeline; the work moves at the pace your nervous system can tolerate, not ahead of it.
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Yes. Virtual therapy can be effective for dissociative disorders, and Holistic Trauma Therapy® offers online care for adults throughout California. For some clients and some stages of work, in-person sessions in Pasadena may be preferable. We will discuss what best supports your stability and safety during your consultation.
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It is not uncommon for dissociative disorders to be identified only after other diagnoses — such as bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, or a psychotic disorder — have been considered first. A careful, dissociation-informed assessment can help clarify your experience. We approach this with patience and without pressure.
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Holistic Trauma Therapy® is led by Chief Traumatologist Seema Sharma, SEP, LMFT, whose training for this work includes the ISST-D Advanced Professional Trauma Training (a three-year program in complex trauma and dissociative disorders), IFS, Somatic Experiencing, and EMDR. The practice embraces an evidence-based + body-based approach, combined with consciousness, that allows for deep healing for clients with a dissociative disorder.
