What it’s like to reconnect with the unconscious mind in ISTDP

One of the most powerful parts of ISTDP is helping someone come into contact with their unconscious mind, allowing shifts to happen deep within their internal world.

But what does that actually look like in a session?

For many it can feel like entering an inner dream, where the deeper emotional world begins to reveal itself.

For example, someone who struggles to assert themselves might suddenly see an image of their younger self, back in a place long forgotten, powerless in front of an overbearing parent.

In that moment, they’re not just remembering it, they’re in it.

It can feel strange, vivid, and deeply physical.

Like being transported back to a world they no longer knew existed.

And that’s where the change happens.

In that dream-like state, the person reconnects with feelings long forgotten, feelings that had been suppressed or buried.

When the feelings are felt the dream comes to an end, and a new reality takes shape.

The reconnection with those lost feelings reshapes the internal world, from helplessness to assertion, from paralysis to movement.

When that happens, something inside feels newly aligned, as if the mind has caught up with the truth of what was always there.