Unmasking the Autistic Self: Healing Through Memory Integration

In our previous posts, we’ve explored the compelling idea that many autistic characteristics can be understood as adaptive dissociative responses to early overwhelming experiences, deeply rooted in the body’s nervous system. This paradigm shift, moving beyond a purely deficit-based model, naturally leads to a critical question: If autism is, in part, a manifestation of trauma and dissociation, what are the most effective paths to healing?

At the Wounded Healers Institute, we believe the answer lies in dissociation and addiction-informed care, focusing on emotional regulation, and facilitating the integration of dissociated parts of the self. Additionally, WHI sees that drug use trauma, medical intervention (routes of administration, drug potency, and toxic chemicals acting as poisons and neurotoxins), This approach moves beyond behavioral management to address the core nervous system dysregulation and fragmented internal experiences into a healing solution that promotes recovery, healing and integration.

Integration of memory, Not Eradication of Self

When we view autistic traits through a dissociative lens, the healing shifts. It’s not about “curing” autism or eradicating unique neurodivergent ways of being. Instead, it’s about helping individuals:

• Regulate their nervous system: Moving out of chronic states of hyper-arousal (fight/flight) or hypo-arousal (freeze/shutdown). (WHI use Neurofeedback Training to support this.)
• Reconnect with their internal experience: Building capacity to feel and process emotions, sensations, and memories that may have been dissociated.
• Integrate fragmented parts of self: Helping different aspects of their experience (thoughts, feelings, sensations, actions) become more cohesive and connected.
• Foster a sense of safety: Creating an internal and external environment where the individual feels safe enough to be present and engage authentically.

Key Therapeutic Approaches

Drawing from the insights of Polyvagal Theory, Somatic Experiencing, and other trauma-informed modalities, here are key therapeutic implications:

1. Prioritizing Safety and Co-Regulation:
   • Therapeutic Relationship: The foundation of all healing is a safe, consistent, and attuned therapeutic relationship. The therapist becomes a co-regulator, helping the individual’s nervous system learn to feel safe in connection.
   • Environment: Creating a predictable, low-stimulus, and validating environment where the individual feels seen, heard, and understood without judgment.
2. Somatic Approaches:
   • Body Awareness: Many individuals who dissociate are disconnected from their bodily sensations. Gentle somatic practices (e.g., Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing, gentle movement, breathwork) help build interoception – the awareness of internal bodily states. This is crucial for reconnecting with emotions and processing stored trauma.
   • Titration: Working with small, manageable doses of sensation or emotion to avoid re-traumatization. The goal is to gradually expand the individual’s “window of tolerance” for internal experience.
3. Emotional Regulation Skills:
   • Identifying Emotions: Helping individuals develop a vocabulary for emotions and learn to recognize their physical manifestations (e.g., “When I feel a knot in my stomach, that might be anxiety”).
   • Grounding Techniques: Simple practices that bring an individual back to the present moment when overwhelmed or dissociated (e.g., focusing on senses, feeling feet on the ground).
   • Co-Regulation Strategies: Teaching individuals and their caregivers techniques to calm and soothe the nervous system together.
4. Integration of Dissociated Parts:
   • Ego States: Working with what has been historically known as Ego States, supports parts healing in a direct and honest way, when prepared, informed, approving, and willing. Our Meeting Area Screening and Assessment (MASA) provides the basis of our parts work analysis. Path of the Wounded Healer approach is informed by lived experience and is psychoanalytic by nature, but humanistic by design
   • Internal Family Systems (IFS): A powerful model that views the psyche as comprised of various “parts” (e.g., a “protector part” that dissociates, a “vulnerable child part”). Therapy helps individuals build compassionate relationships with these parts, understanding their protective intentions and integrating them into a more cohesive self.
   • Narrative Work: Helping individuals construct a coherent life story that incorporates their experiences of trauma and dissociation, leading to a more integrated sense of identity.
   • Memory Reconsolidation: The mainstay of our work is to do therapies like EMDR and meditation-based healing modalities like Brainspotting and Psychedelic Care (O’Brien, 2023b).

A Path to Authentic Self-Expression

This dissociative and addiction-informed, integrative approach allows individuals with autistic presentations to gradually “unmask” – to shed the adaptive strategies that once served as protection but now hinder authentic connection and self-expression. It’s about moving from a state of survival to a state of thriving, where their unique neurodivergent strengths can shine without the burden of unresolved trauma.

In our next blog post, we will shift our focus to the crucial role of early intervention, exploring how fostering co-regulation, safety, and secure attachment can mitigate dissociative adaptations from the very beginning.

Dr. Adam O’Brien is a leading voice in dissociation-informed care and neurodiversity. He is the founder of the Wounded Healers Institute, dedicated to bridging the gap between academic research and practical application in mental health.

For more on our work and cause, consider following or signing up for newsletter or our work at woundedhealersinstitute.org or donating to our cause: HERE.

References

O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.