Preparation For Trauma Therapy

[Froggie]

There is a fundamental flaw in the training of a therapist which is now finally being reviewed for change towards trauma, as that is that therapists are training to never assign blame to a patient, even if it the truth, along with telling them that they are at fault for something, if they clearly are. Therapist are literally trained to lie, as the current training dictates that this type of approach is retraumatizing, however; physicians are finally starting to see that to get through to the more severe end of the spectrum in PTSD, being the majority on this site, that they need to start encompassing honest over what might happen, ie. retraumatization.

That is part of the situation Anthony, the others are :
* a lack of experience with certain mental health problems such as PTSD
* an inner fear of the patient becoming angry or dissociating
* lack of information and formation for PTSD - I'm speaking with knowledge here as for the formation I had never prepared me to face PTSD patients, not with what I'm living now.

I'm sure there are other factors, but I can tell you that some Ts will go out of their way to get the information and suggestions from experts " OK what do I do when ... "

 

[KP the nut]

It pisses me off the current state of mental health opinion against severe and complex PTSD, being, if they aren't showing significant signs of improvement after 12 sessions of therapy, then there is little hope for them to improve. What absolute nonsense... these are the mental health industry findings on severe and complex PTSD cases... give up! The beauty I read last week... just accept they will have to be in therapy the remainder of their life, and as a therapist your job is to try and calm them. What, forever? Seriously? This is the mental health industry?

I just shake my head at times in disbelief.

Gosh, my T told me right at the start it would possibly take a minimum of 20 sessions (90 minutes each) and that there was no quick fix.

If anything, I'm the one who wants to push, I'm scared as hell but I want to take control back, I'm sick of being this weak person who can't go to work, drive unfamiliar journeys, cope with everyday stuff. T keeps reining me in and pointing out that as I am facing my trauma I am definitely not weak.

 

[anthony]

Even that is being moderate IMHO for anyone suffering severe / complex ranges of trauma, then add the years of self work needed to learn how to manage everything taught in therapy + exposure therapy.

 

[Iam]

Gosh, my T told me right at the start it would possibly take a minimum of 20 sessions (90 minutes each) and that there was no quick fix.

If anything, I'm the one who wants to push, I'm scared as hell but I want to take control back,

Kath, you got your internet back? YAY!

I want to push through it too Kath and both my T's slow me down, rein me in. It takes time I guess to truly work thru and to recondition our responses. Head knowledge is one thing, we can learn what we are supposed to think, feel, react etc, but I find for me that it is very hard to translate that to the heart/core of myself. Let alone make the new thoughts, feelings and reactions second nature. Maybe that is just me, but man do I find it frustrating!

 

[intothelight]

Even that is being moderate IMHO for anyone suffering severe / complex ranges of trauma, then add the years of self work needed to learn how to manage everything taught in therapy + exposure therapy.

Sounds pretty logical since it took a lot of us years (or in my case decades) to get to where we are at.

 

[intothelight]

What absolute nonsense... these are the mental health industry findings on severe and complex PTSD cases... give up! The beauty I read last week... just accept they will have to be in therapy the remainder of their life, and as a therapist your job is to try and calm them. What, forever? Seriously? This is the mental health industry?

Well that sums up my diagnosis, I am a "lost cause". The best I can hope for is a lifetime of medication and therapy so I can "function". WTF? They forgot to ask me what I want. I just wanted to live.