Trauma t is out of ideas

[EveHarrington]

I'm clueless as to why this therapist doesn't know what do to since EMDR didn't work.

There's this thing called Google....

My therapist was out of ideas at one point and she helped me find other treatments.

Not to mention the fact that EMDR is just ONE way of processing trauma. (Any therapist worth anything would know this!)

 

[DogwoodTree]

my therapist got a bit creative with how he got me through that part but he still did

Can you give examples?

 

[DogwoodTree]

I'm clueless as to why this therapist doesn't know what do to since EMDR didn't work.

There's this thing called Google....

My therapist was out of ideas at one point and she helped me find other treatments.

I think part of the problem is that the treatments he's aware of being available in our area have either been ruled out at this point (e.g., neurofeedback) or I've already tried them (i.e., EMDR and equine therapy). The trauma T I saw this past spring for EMDR listed off several therapies at my last session that she says she normally recommends if EMDR doesn't work, and said she didn't think any of them would be a good fit for me. Then she ended that last session a half hour early because there was nothing else to say.

 

[Friday]

Have you done prolonged exposure therapy? It very neatly dovetails into the emotional monitoring & regulation we do with ADHD, and is often a component with spectrum disorder management.

 

[DogwoodTree]

Have you done prolonged exposure therapy?

No, not specifically. It seems like having the asperger's mixed in would make this especially complicated. It's so hard to differentiate which parts are trauma-related and which parts are autism.

It stresses me out thinking about taking an exposure approach to all this. I spent 20 years forcing myself to keep going in an intimate relationship with DH, even through all the flashbacks and sensory issues and everything else. I got to where I'd rather die than try it again.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

examples

Of how he got creative? He used his own family to show me how mine was really not normal. He probably went way deeper and got way more personal with me due to that but it is what I needed and over a long length of time plus him finding this site towards the end of that time is sort of what broke through.

He has also used non-idenifying details of past patients. That helped a lot toi.

So, I think that's creative and maybe going a bit beyond boundries but its what was needed, I still don't know where he lives or any crazy stuff like that, nor who was his past patients were or details that would identify their trauma or anything like that. So there was boundries to it and best of all, over time it broke through the "brainwashing".

 

[DogwoodTree]

He used his own family to show me how mine was really not normal.

My long-term T did some of that. The new one hasn't so much. But the new one suggested that I keep an art journal, which gave me a way to try to communicate some of the pictures in my mind. I think in pictures, but I can't draw nearly as well as the ones I see. But...it's been interesting. And he takes the time to really look at the pictures and respond to them, no matter how awful they are, no matter how painful. Sometimes I can draw some of the things that happened.

This new guy is good about calling me on distorted thinking. Just knowing it's distorted, though, doesn't fix it. I can tell him the things I believe that I know I'm not supposed to believe, but I don't know how to change those beliefs.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

This new guy is good about calling me on distorted thinking. Just knowing it's distorted, though, doesn't fix it. I can tell him the things I believe that I know I'm not supposed to believe, but I don't know how to change those beliefs.

I think learning they are distorted helps as before they weren't distorted to me but rather correct. The way I fixed most of them was to challenge them. It wasn't easy at all and pitted me against me in my head that was a huge battle for a while but it changed over some time. So there is some value in that I think.

 

[Kaleidoscope]

EMDR did not work for me... I wish it had. It 'opened things up more' so my therapist stopped using it with me.
He gradually introduced into our hour Brain-Spotting (developed by David Grand)
Brain-Spotting has been helpful...both for using to obtain relief and I've also used it to learn to tolerate the strong emotions that would suddenly wash over me. I hate this too...
I have felt some of what you say about yourself.

Seek gentle experiences; seek whatever inspires joy or peace...whenever you can.

You are a precious creation, innocent of what transpired in your formative years.

This is how I walk through this...one day at a time (sometimes one hour at a time).

 

[anthony]

PE is the most effective current treatment for PTSD. EMDR sits close enough to PE, considering both are exposure based. TF-CBT is also very effective. SIT is another PTSD tier 1 treatment. You can use aspects of DBT, ACT and SIT, all CBT oriented models, to become quite good at self-regulation and looking openly and honestly to solve your trauma aspects.

 

[Kaleidoscope]

Thx Anthony... what is PE? Also TF-CBT and SIT?
Thanks!

Thx Anthony... what is PE? Also TF-CBT and SIT?

PS...I just 'googled' it ... thx anyway!