Rescripting

[catjudo]

I returned to therapy a few months ago, but with a new therapist. He's really pushing me to address and work through my trauma history. We started to talk more about it today, but really just began to scratch the surface of the things that are easiest for me to talk about.

He keeps telling me he wants to work with me to do some rescripting. Maybe I'm not understanding him well, but it seems to me like creating some sort of fantasy for me to live in. We talk about memories and then rescript it to have a more preferable outcome or to have handled it differently. Am I really understanding him right? I've tried telling him that it sounds like creating some lie or fantasy and he insists it isn't. I've tried looking some things up online but everything I did find either made my head spin or my eyes glass over. I just wasn't getting it, and I'm typically a pretty smart cookie who catches on to things rather quickly. Perhaps it's because I spent time talking about my trauma today and I'm still feeling really prickly and out of it from the therapy session.

So my question is does anyone here have any experience with rescripting? If you have, what was your experience like? Did it work for you? Would you recommend trying it? Even if you haven't tried it, is there anyone who understands the concept better than me and can try to explain it to me differently so that it makes sense?

catjudo

 

[Mina]

I've heard of the rescripting technique before in relation to nightmares and bad dreams. The idea there is to re-write the ending so it's a positive or favorable outcome. The way it's been explained to me is that the brain can't tell the difference between the un/subconscious bad/nightmare ending and the good/conscious thought ending...so the nightmare fades and ceases to linger because it's been rewritten.

This hasn't worked for me with nightmares, but I've used it in relation to frightening, intrusive images.

This is a bit graphic perhaps (and silly as well?). The other night I was laying in bed and had a scary image of Freddy Krueger pop into my head - I saw just a couple minutes of a Nightmare on Elm Street movie as a child at someone else's house, and the image of him always scared the crap out of me. So, I decided to take that image and rewrite what happened, as I wanted it to go away. I visualized the image of him. Then I visualized myself killing him, burning the corpse, and scattering the ashes into the ocean. I felt much better and was able to fall asleep.

The idea of using rescripting with real-life events is a bit unnerving to me, though, for the same reasons you list. It seems to me a great way to get confused between reality and fantasy.

 

[2quilt]

I have had T's ask me, How would you have WANTED that situation to turn out?" or "How would you have wanted to behave instead of the way you reacted?" or "What could you have changed about the situation or done differently?"

is that what your T is meaning?

 

[catjudo]

Mina--thanks for sharing. I didn't think it was too graphic or silly. It helped me to understand the concept a bit better. I can totally see how it would apply to something like disturbing dreams. I'm just not so sure about crossing over to reality. These are real memories that I have. How am I supposed to just tell myself it happened differently?

2 quilt--I don't think so. The way I understand it, he wants me to share some memories then he will help rescript it.

Maybe there's more to what he is wanting to do but I just don't realize it yet because I haven't tried it. It just seems...I don't know...weird. I, like most with PTSD, have a real history of avoidance when it comes to these memories. I don't want to just dismiss trying his technique for the wrong reasons. And I don't want him to think I'm not serious about being willing to put in the work so that I can begin to heal. But I also don't want to do something that will make things in my mind more jumbled and confusing; I already have a lot of things that I don't remember. I don't want to make whats there more confusing. But then again, if that helps me to forget the bad stuff, maybe it's worth it.

I also am a very logic driven person. I analyze and pick things apart in order to understand it and make the best decisions...I'm not just talking about trauma stuff but all of my experiences in my life whether past or present. My T has talked about me needing to stop dissecting the memories of what happened. I'm just not sure that's in the realm of something I'm capable of doing. And I have trouble seeing myself being successful at convincing myself things happened any differently than the reality (and maybe that's not what he really intends to do, but it just seems that way at this point). And isn't that what therapy really is all about? Teaching us how to do the things we're not already capable of in an attempt to teach us how to improve our situation?

I'm just really torn on how to proceed.