When Parenting Awakens the Past: Dissociation, Healing & Making Sense of Your Story with Sally Maslansky, LMFT

What if the symptoms you’re ashamed of once saved your life?

In this powerful and deeply human episode, I sit down with Sally Maslansky, LMFT author of A Brilliant Adaptation and longtime patient of Daniel J. Siegel, to explore dissociation, DID, adoption, attachment, and what it truly means to make sense of your story so your child doesn’t have to carry it.

Sally shares her extraordinary journey of living with Dissociative Identity Disorder — and fully healing from it — through relational, attachment-based therapy. We talk about:

• Why DID is not what movies portray it to be
• What dissociation actually is (and why it’s often brilliant)
• How parenting can awaken unresolved trauma
• The difference between protecting your child from their story… and helping them make sense of it
• Why behavior is almost never “bad”
• How repair transforms parenting
• And why relationships cause harm — but relationships also heal it

Sally’s story reminds us that dissociation isn’t pathology, it’s adaptation. And healing doesn’t require perfection — it requires safety, relationship, and the courage to face your own story.

This episode is for you if you’ve ever wondered:

• “Am I broken?”
• “Why does parenting trigger me?”
• “Can trauma really heal?”
• “Is integration actually possible?”

Connect with me on Instagram @dr.koslowitzpsychology and check out my new book Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be

Connect with Sally Maslansky, LMFT at her website sallymaslansky.com and check out Sally Maslansky's book A Brilliant Adaptation: How Dissociative Identity Disorder & the Power of the Therapeutic Bond Saved Me