EVERYONE experiences dissociation! It's normal to "lose touch," but depending on the level of unprocessed emotional baggage you carry in your body, you will be more prone to leave your body and feel disconnected from your present reality. The trauma happened, and you are left with emotional baggage, the toxic residue, the aftermath of the event, and that is stored in your body. Still, we unconsciously don't want to heal the emotional baggage because it requires us to BE IN OUR BODIES to feel the unfelt feelings. It requires us to be with discomfort, and it requires us to stop running away from unpleasant emotions. In the Somatic Activated HealingTM Teacher Training, the first thing I teach students is how to feel and how to be with (temporary) discomfort. The miracles are mind-blowing to see. Students just entered the third week today of my 5-week teacher training. This quote from the Buddhist Master Pema Chödrön summarizes our human struggle. "All the terrible things we do to ourselves and others from alcoholism to character assignation to abuse to murder come from one cause: the inability to stay present with an uncomfortable feeling in the body and seek short-term relief."