• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

How can you tell when you need to ask your T for an extra session?

Status
Not open for further replies.
that's fair, I didn't explicitly say "I need help stat"
I think it’s important that you see it, because it’s something you can try next time, if you want to.
again, like she thought I was too much and couldn't work with me until I "fixed" myself more.
This resonates with me. Especially in the first year or two of therapy, I got the sense that we weren’t going to touch any deep processing unless I was actively working on self care outside of session, and it was evident when I was and when I wasn’t.

Even with loads of self care and gratitude I still had SI and self-abandonment and I remember one time her saying with an exasperated tone, “You just have to accept yourself!” She was pushing Tara Brach at the time, who wrote “Radical Self Acceptance”. I was so angry, and it felt like she was saying that, “Just fix yourself already!”

But she didn’t abandon me and she keeps being there and demonstrating care. I think it *is* important to prioritize self care and self acceptance, but sometimes it’s a tangled and complicated process.

Glad to hear you feel that she has a level-head and professionalism, I think that’s important too.
 
If it has to do directly with trauma and its escaping from the EMDR box- get to your T.
We've just been trying to work on starting DBT right now, but if/when I do start jumping into EMDR I'll keep that in mind. Is it really that common or important to ask for extra sessions when things get bad with EMDR? Like, am I gonna need their phone number on speed dial?
 
We've just been trying to work on starting DBT right now, but if/when I do start jumping into EMDR I'll keep that in mind. Is it really that common or important to ask for extra sessions when things get bad with EMDR? Like, am I gonna need their phone number on speed dial?
Not on speed dial but for sur keep it handy. I think that was the one time I really needed an extra session. But you can't tell. As reprocessing happens it takes pain out of memories that our brain hid. Occasionally those hold keys to unlocking trauma memories. When that happens - call.
 
Not on speed dial but for sur keep it handy. I think that was the one time I really needed an extra session. But you can't tell. As reprocessing happens it takes pain out of memories that our brain hid. Occasionally those hold keys to unlocking trauma memories. When that happens - call.
Unlocking trauma memories, by that do you mean unlocking repressed memories?
 
Unlocking trauma memories, by that do you mean unlocking repressed memories?
Actually as I understand it, there is a specific type of amnesia (or repression of memory) that occurs. Over time one part of your mind tries keep you from trauma memories while other parts are showing you trauma in nightmares. There is even recalled pain from trauma where the pain is misplaced as a cry for help and healing. In my case it came in the form of mindbending headaches that could last a couple weeks. There was no real pain, it all came from memories around my trauma. Thank god those have stopped too.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top