Search results

Email has become so important in my work with my therapist. I email her usually once between sessions. (We meet once a week for an hour). I don’t process until later. In her office (even though I’ve seen her for five years) I often dissociate and can’t say things I need to. Sometimes I’ll come...

Yes. Her book Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors is so good. My T went to her training. And I listen to anything I can find her on. I appreciate her work so much.

This is just par for the course. This happens ALL the time for me. I just check out. Dissociate. My T knows the signs. She’s so well versed on not only trauma and dissociation but my specific clues that I’m about the dissociate (I guess something about my eyes, but I don’t know what it is) and...

Hey @FauxLiz, how did it go? I hope it was easier than you thought it would be. @blackemerald1 is right. It’s tempting to hide anxiety but you deserve to have a place you can be seen and safe.

This is going to sound silly, maybe. But one thing that helped me a LOT in learning to be more vulnerable emotionally was a series of podcasts I listened to. (And this is still a struggle. I just left a session where I said almost nothing because I didn’t want to cry. So it’s definitely a work...

I struggle with this. It’s so hard. It happened when I was several months into therapy and I could not move. I stared at a spot on her shelf for god knows how long and she kept talking quietly, letting me know she was there, and I barely heard her. I can’t remember how it eases enough for me to...

Sessions aren’t sessions in isolation. It’s an ongoing process, discussion, journey, etc. my friend reminded me of that last night when I left my session frustrated and wanting to give up and not wanting to wait until next week to work it out. I think the advice to sit with it and maybe journal...

My T of 4 years just said tonight she’s finally seeing just how big of a role dreams and nightmares play in the cycles I go through in my “good/stable/okay” times and my severely triggered/self-sabatoging times. And that’s only because I started emailing her recently in detail some of the dreams...

I used to feel like sessions talking about my kids or work or marriage were wasted, because what I really wanted was relief from the symptoms. It was probably a couple of years of a little bit of trauma stuff, how the trauma was manifesting, but a lot of day to day stuff I felt was pointless to...

Even if you understand why someone did something (which can be a coping mechanism) it doesn’t change what it has done to your brain and nervous system. Getting diagnosed and learning how to handle the flashbacks and other symptoms from a professional is the way to go. Trauma doesn’t pass with...

Dissociation is so interesting. I went through two years of therapy with a seasoned T, and realized years later i was dissociated in every session and never made progress for that reason. I rattled off details of traumas feeling utterly disconnected, completely out of body. The T I’m with now...

Want to be more specific. Give some examples? I’m sure you’re being manipulated. I’ve following this thread for a long time and I’m sure what you need is a clean break. I’m here to support you and cheer you on.

Good. What do you need?

I’ve been with my T for 4 years and if it weren’t for email, I would be so much further back in the process than I am. Sometimes I don’t write for months, others I email once a week (we meet once a week). Never more than that, because that’s what I felt would be a good boundary to keep...

I’ve been with mine almost 4 years. The connection was almost immediate. The trust? Still working on that. In my head I trust her. But I’m always waiting for her to not want to work with me anymore, despite her constant reassurance that it’s never the case. It’s unfortunate that your T would...

Yeah, to go along with what @EveHarrington says, I have found IFS very helpful as a framework although I don’t do official parts work in session. There will be times when my T will use it to explain a reaction I have “that’s a firefighter who is trying to protect you,” sort of the thing. And I...

@hithere I’m sorry this happened. I’m listening.

When I wanted to send my T and email like this I emailed ahead of the long one asking if it was ok, and that I would also print and bring it, saying I didn’t expect her to read it until our session but needed to communicate this way. She welcomed the idea (we had some back and forth prior, but I...

I’m working on this *exact* topic in therapy. Just realizing over the last few weeks what a massive obstacle this is. I just listened to this podcast ‎The Liturgists Podcast: Shame - Live from Seattle on Apple Podcasts (Don’t know if that will work if you don’t have an iphone?) but there’s a...

If you don’t feel like it’s resolved, I would say email her again. Say I know we touched on it but I want to process it a little more. I want to understand what part of me felt the need to do that.. or whatever about it feels unsettled. I did that recently when my T and I discussed and email but...

I know you’re feeling hesitant to see her after sending the email. I’ve been there. Many times. Emails sent from a place of fear/vulnerability always make me so scared to see her again. But sometimes those end up being our best sessions, which is why I don’t use the draft approach often. I email...

She sounds awesome, and I’m glad you got the response you did. I’ve sent emails that have felt so needy to me. In general I am a fan of putting up walls and distancing myself from my T because that makes me feel less shame. So she now has me reading about shame, and just explained in my last...

Even if you were in therapy, I would steer really clear of trying to dig up memories. From my experience, if you do that, you may have some surface, and then wonder for the rest of your life if they’re true. Body memories, for me, aren’t tension around people. They’re more like feeling...

@Justmehere I’m sorry it’s so hard, but I see you trying. That’s all I want to say. I see you. And although I don’t know you aside from on here, I care and feel for the struggle you’re having. Please keep hanging on each day until you can find relief. It’s so hard when you’re tired of the...

Man, I don’t know why there are so many harmful incompetent Ts out there. I’m so sorry you’re not getting the help you need. My T is the first one out of a few who I brought my suicidal thoughts up to. It took me a couple of years to ask her what she would do if I texted or called if I felt I...