How do you tell your therapist your whole history?

[blackemerald1]

@Swift - the thing with time-line's and listing traumatic events etc., is there are lots of little things that don't really seem even relevant or traumatic to you. These apparently inconsequential events can take on whole new dimensions within the context of what you think are the main things to get out. Important for your T and since you are not aware of their inherent value...you don't know to put them into a time-line in the first place.

So regardless of how hard you try and depending on the type of trauma (and in your case you have said it is complicated) - you may find your T is still going to say 'hey wait..back-up and say that again' just as frequently anyway.

I reckon save yourself the heartache and drop all the trauma bombs you have when the release lever gets pulled. She will cope and it will all be dealt with in time.

 

[piratelady]

I've been with my therapist for a long time. Recently, there were a lot of instances where he said, "Wait, I didn't know about...." It happened often enough he did a new "social history" We went over everything. I won't lie, it was hard, it opened up lots of old wounds that I had long forgotten about. But I got through it. It relieved some of my anxiety about telling him some things, because he already knew.

However, there were a few other memories that got skipped over for whatever reason. Now I have a ton of anxiety again about telling him those things. I'm worried he'll wonder why they didn't come up before, or that I'm lying, or he'll judge me.

I guess I'm trying to say, I think there is a benefit to getting it all out there, even if at a high level, but knowing new things will still pop up that will be hard to talk about.