Sally Maslansky, "A Brilliant Adaptation: How Dissociative Identity Disorder and the Power of the Therapeutic Bond Saved Me" (New Harbinger Publications, 2026)

May 13, 2026

Sally Maslansky, licensed marriage and family therapist and memoirist, recounts living with dissociative identity disorder and healing through interpersonal neurobiology. She discusses how relational therapy, memory barriers, and mindfulness practices helped her reconnect with forgotten parts. The conversation covers triggers, intensive therapeutic work, integration, and reclaiming a joyful life.

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INSIGHT

Relational Bond Plus Inner Reflection Healed DID

Healing came from the combination of a reliably safe therapeutic relationship and the patient's intentional inner reflection practice.
Sally credits Dr. Daniel J. Siegel's non-prescriptive, relational approach plus her own looking-inside as the arena that allowed DID to resolve.

ANECDOTE

Adoption Trip Triggered Memory Inquiry

Sally began therapy at 37 after adoption-related terror surfaced and she realized she could not remember her childhood.
She met Dr. Siegel because he evaluated her adopted son Sam, and his question about remembering childhood sparked her grounded decision to investigate.

ANECDOTE

Intensive Multiweek Therapy Supported By Family

During intensive treatment Sally saw Dr. Siegel three to four times a week, sometimes for multi-hour sessions, supported by her husband and childcare.
This privileged, focused period allowed deep, sustained therapeutic work to proceed.

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A Brilliant Adaptation: How Dissociative Identity Disorder and the Power of the Therapeutic Bond Saved Me (New Harbinger Publications, 2026) is a searing and profound memoir of one woman's journey through dissociative identity disorder and childhood sexual abuse--and how she found hope, healing, and recovery.

Sally Maslansky is living the perfect life: a beautiful home in Malibu, California, a successful Hollywood producer husband who adores her, and a recently adopted son she treasures. But when Sally begins to remember the trauma she endured as a child, her world begins to unravel. In this gripping and provocative memoir, psychotherapist Maslansky shares how childhood sexual abuse led her to develop dissociative identity disorder (DID), and how, with the help of renowned therapist Daniel J. Siegel, she ultimately recovers. The book reveals the power of therapeutic bond to heal deep attachment wounds, the science of neuroplasticity in healing the traumatized mind, and our capacity as human beings to reconcile unspeakable experiences in order to grow, change, and live vibrant, loving, and joyful lives against all odds. Together with Siegel, Maslansky slowly recovers her childhood memories and reconnects with the forgotten parts of herself--parts that she grows to admire, respect, honor, and love, because they literally saved her young mind from unimaginable horrors. In the book, Siegel describes Maslansky's DID as a brilliant adaptation of the mind--a protective force that kept her mentally safe when the people she should have trusted most were the ones responsible for her abuse. Whether you have struggled with DID yourself, love someone who has DID, or are simply looking to be inspired by the tenacity of the human spirit, this memoir offers a provocative glimpse into an often pathologized and misunderstood condition, and shows the profound and healing possibilities of therapy, human understanding, and the will to survive.

Sally Maslansky, LMFT has been in private practice for twenty years in Chapel Hill, NC. She treats families, adoption, trauma, parenting, and adult individuals. Her training is in interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), adult attachment interview (AAI), attachment theory, polyvagal theory practices, mindfulness, and the wheel of awareness practice.

For more information on Sally and her work, please visit her website sallymaslansky.com

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