As usual, Dr. Perry's writing really struck a chord with me. His work is genuinely so powerful - I get something new out of it every time I open his book. Something I noticed this time was during his work with Ted and Amber, he wrote about Ted "being able" to dissociate, which isn't really a perspective I've seen on coping mechanisms - as Perry acknowledged the harm that Ted''s dissociating was doing, he also acknowledged the safety of it for Ted, and having Ted's dissociation presented not as something purely good or bad but as a safety measure was really profound. My question here is: how can we put this into practice? How do we know when something is causing too much harm, or when something could be used as a therapeutic tool?
Listening to Dr. Harris speak was remarkable - I think I've actually seen her in other things before, or at least read some of her research, and this time was no less profound. Her conclusions about early trauma affecting health seem so obvious now - it is fascinating to me that she would have received backlash for very simple conclusions. What she said about healthy relationships also touched me - that healthy relationships and a safe environment are not just nice to have, but absolutely essential to development and, in the case of trauma, healing. This makes me think about family separation (at the border and within the child welfare system) and the huge rippling effects that must have over the course of those children's lives.