Trauma Focused Cbt.

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

I have started trauma focused CBT. I feel quite optimistic about it although it means I have to think about somethings I have spent a lot of years trying to forget.

Since I started things have been pretty rough (I spent sometime in hospital). I hope it will help but at the moment it's opening up some scars. In my sessions I have been disassociating in that setting it can be hard to ground myself again. I have been having more night mares lately but I genuinely think in the long term CBT will help (even though I feel worse short term).

It's crazy hard work I would rather have trigonometry home work than what my psychologist gives me. I'm putting in the work (even though it sucks) and hopefully I will see results.

I wander if anyone else has had good result with trauma focused CBT? Or anyone with any experiences or any advice. I would appreciate it. Xxx

 

[Deleted member 20280]

@NoWhereKnowWhere I sympathise entirely. I started similar CBT when I was first diagnosed. I now write everything down trauma wise and am compiling my book "Diary of a Broken Child, Healing the Man Within"

I hope to publish as I have been extremely lucky in that my "T" was exceptional in his early diagnosis and treatment of me with both EMDR and CBT.

When I write the bad things I always try and look for a positive memory from the same time frame in my past to couple it with. Then I focus on the good memories and don't forget the bad ones just put them back in the dusty old brainj box under "Filed and Dealt With"

Hope this helps and you progress well.

Kindest regards and ((Hugs)) if you accept them.

Laurie71

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

Thank you @laurie71 it does help. I keep a journal and I find it very cathartic. The only thing is I find it very difficult to talk. At my last t appointment I gave him some pages of my journal and now I'm worried he will see me as dirty and at fault (the trauma was in the journal). I know this is just my brain being a dick and feel able to tell it to shut up haha.

It sounds like you have come a long way you should be proud of yourself. Once you are published let us all know. I can't let my life be ruined by what happened and I won't.

Hugs to you too. :)

 

[Justmehere]

I did trauma focused CBT and I found it extremely helpful along with DBT and other therapies. You may find tat some people here either really like it or they really do not. It's not for everyone. If it is helping you, I say keep at it!

One of the nice things about TF-CBT is that a lot of it can be done on our own. I love journaling and I still go back and do the old homework exercises my old TF CBT therapist gave me. When I was doing them in the begining, it was like torture. Now, I find it to actually be so helpful and comforting. It has really paid off a lot for me. It has helped other therapies be a lot more effective too - and it has helped me feel like I have a part of my own mind that is safe and ok... hard to explain, but that was really helpful and key for me.

It can also be intense work, especially when going back into and processing the trauma or it's on-going effects on our thinking and our lives. Does your therapist know you have been dissociating in session? Maybe you need to slow down in the session and do some grounding or mindfulness in session. I found that this really helped the CBT work be a lot more effective in the short term.

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

Yeah it's hard work but it does have good results. I told my therapist last session I was disassociating in session he has given me some homework and info in grounding techniques. To be honest I didn't realise I was disassociating until I joined this forum. I thought it was just something I did or I'm not sure something. When I read some threads on disassociating I was like what? Is that what that is haha.