Complex Trauma Sufferers What Type Of Therapy Would You Want, Short Intensive Or Long Term Weekly

[Queen Boudica]

Has anyone had short intensive therapy? Did it help? Which therapy model works for people with complex trauma?

 

[Lucycat]

I have had a combination of both. When I was first diagnosed I had intensive therapy. Daily contact with T and visits 3 times a week. This continued until I was stable then reduced to once a week. Now it is 'as and when'. I have just had a five month gap and am now recommencing weekly for a wee while. I like the flexibility of it.

 

[Queen Boudica]

Do you feel @Lucycat that just the short intensive therapy would have sufficed without then without the continuing weekly sessions when the intensive sessions finished? How long were you in weekly sessions for?

 

[Lucycat]

I have been seeing T for almost 6 years now. The very intensive bit was only about 8 weeks, then weekly for a number of months, then monthly for a while then less. It has all been about what I feel I need. If there had been no contact after the intensive work I don't think I would be where I am now. I have had many a trigger that has caused set-backs and T comes to the rescue. Of course now I can deal with much of it by myself, but when I can't I can call T. December itself is a bad time for me, hence I have called him in again. But last year I was fretting about December in November. This year I have managed better, but still asked for help.

 

[Queen Boudica]

That is what I thought @Lucycat. Some so called expert saying that short intense therapy works but not allowing for longer term less intense after that would be a disaster. Anyway his idea of short would be 10 sessions. which would be ridiculous. All about cutting cost of mental health

 

[Changing4Best]

I started out seeing a therapist 2-3 times a week. I was homeless at the time and had been for quite some time before that. I was also doing some things in life that I should not have done, which hurt my loved ones very much.

Sometimes I ended up in the hospital for a few days to a week, to get a medicine adjustment or just to tide me over until I could get back on my feet.

As I progressed along, I found a church nearby where I was begging in the streets, and they were kind to me, not treating me as the beggar who begs around the corner from here. They treated me like a human being and even some of the members gave me money to help me.

As I progressed in therapy and the church helped me to see I was hurting my loved ones, I stopped hurting them. Some forgave me, some did not.

I eventually only needed to see my therapist every other week, and now I see her only once a month. She uses a smattering of therapy techniques on me, she says, whichever of her many tools she needs in order to help me in my life. I always come away from her sessions feeling fulfilled and at peace. All this started in 2002 and progressed slowly but surely. I was not stable in a shot time, but I eventually am stable now and have been for several years.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

I did a twelve week course of Cognitive Processing Therapy and it almost broke me, for real. Because it was so short term, it moved me into the trauma before I had the skills to deal with my affect and emotions, and I became suicidal. Not to scare you, but I think the idea of a short, easy "fix" was a complete mistake for me - I wanted to be better faster, and what I got was a suicidal frame of mind and some scary close calls with death (still struggling with these ...).

Now I'm in longer term therapy. Six months later, I'm still trying to get back to where I was before I started CPT.

I'd be careful of any professional that thinks short term would work for CPTSD ....

 

[Queen Boudica]

oh I am not going for short easy fix for me. Just the government here are making huge changes to mental health care and there is some so called expert on one site claiming research shows short intensive therapy is best. (Currently you can get 10 sessions of therapy in a year) so that would be extremely short. So I think this guy is suggesting that trauma sufferers can somehow manage with such short intense therapy and with no longer term therapy. Which I just cannot see how that could be the case.

 

[jaccat]

In the UK I got six weeks of therapy on the NHS. I asked for talk therapy but got CBT, which did not even make a dent in my problems at the time. I don't think six weeks of any kind of therapy would have been helpful to me. The CBT therapist basically said the past is unimportant! I eventually got up the nerve to go private and am now seeing a therapist weekly, long term. The impact it's having on me is life changing.

 

[Intrepid]

My first therapy combined religion and psycology. They thought they could make me better through a religious type awakening. It was way too intense and I totally lost it.

I saw about 10 different therapists before I found one that had a program that worked. Some had bad processes, some were bad fits, and some didn't have a clue. Like @jaccat, I found CBT was completely unhelpful with the PTSD. It just supported my denial. But it did make me realize that I couldn't live in denial any longer. After that I found the first therapist that really knew what she was doing.

Intensive therapy may have worked at that point, but I couldn't afford more than once a week at most. So that took 5 years. She saw me fall apart in therapy over and over again. She was very patient. I wouldn’t slow down for her, and I was in constant crisis.

Now with my new therapist and some lite medication I’m able to focus. She says we need to work 95 percent on grounding and 5 percent on trauma, and I’m cooperating.

 

[Panda Bear]

I've had almost 4yrs of weekly, long term therapy. In the beginning, we saw each other 2x a week because I was a basket case. But that lasted only a short time, maybe 6-8wks? It wasn't even to work on anything major, that didn't come for years. Can't remember.

No way, no how, could I do intensive therapy over a short period. I'd die, that and how could you? Took me 2yrs to trust my T and he didn't even know about the CSA(well...he knew but I didn't confirm) till last October. Close to 3yrs into our relationship.

Nope...no...not for me.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

there is some so called expert on one site claiming research shows short intensive therapy is best.

The CPT treatment I did is "evidence-based" and has a lot of really great research done about it. On paper, it promised a quick, effective fix. In reality, it almost killed me (literally; it drove me to want to die in a scary, scary way). I would just be super careful to get involved in short term therapy unless you feel incredible, incredibly grounded on your own.