nightmares rescripting...very odd!

[rosey]

Anyone else had this?

Since having prolonged exposure therapy where my many traumas were worked on by rescripting for slightly better endings, My nights reduced from at best 1 a night, at worst 8 a night down to only a handful over the last six months. It has been lovely. The last few weeks has seen a return somewhat but in a very different format. The dreams begin with replay of the traumas then change to a rescipted version. It is nice to not have a full blown nightmare but very strange that I now appear to be mimicing a therapy technique in my dream state.

I contacted the therapist that I did the exposure therapy with ( I finished up in january) to see what her take on it is and she has never had any other clients report this happening.

Surely I am not alone in this?

 

[joeylittle]

Surely I am not alone in this?

Probably not. Our dreams are generally influenced by the things we are doing in our lives that hold meaning for us, the things we are worrying about, the background noise in our thoughts...

Are you doing any other therapy or trauma work right now? Or even wondering about re-starting therapy? Things like that could be a reason why you're incorporating therapy techniques into your dreams.

 

[rosey]

Probably not. Our dreams are generally influenced by the things we are doing in our lives that hold meaning for us, the things we are worrying about, the background noise in our thoughts...

Are you doing any other therapy or trauma work right now? Or even wondering about re-starting therapy? Things like that could be a reason why you're incorporating therapy techniques into your dreams.

I am back in therapy as it is a requirement for my doctorate. Not doing specific trauma work but not avoiding trauma talk where it pops up. My old therapist who I had the exposure work with and her supervisor have never heard of it happening before (both have decades of trauma exposure experience between them) likewise my current T and supervisor never heard of it.

What is strange is that I have been very stable in terms of PTSD symptons for a while now. and no obvious triggers occurring. I guess I might never know.

 

[joeylittle]

My old therapist who I had the exposure work with and her supervisor have never heard of it happening before

Interesting. It's not at all uncommon to use one's existing skill set or skill-based experiences in a dream. So - you doing something in a dream that you spent a lot of time doing in real-life doesn't strike me as especially strange. I think it's cool that your subconscious has clearly grabbed onto the re-scripting technique quite deeply; to me, that would indicate that it's something you were very effective at.

It sounds like a really interesting research topic. I wonder if your mentors/past therapist haven't heard of it just because no-ones ever told them before...

I know I've used coping techniques I've learned in therapy, inside trauma-based dreams. But I haven't found them to be effective (in the dream). I've generally noticed that those kinds of things come up for me when I'm especially struggling in sessions.