Trying Some New Things In Therapy.

[FindingMyself88]

I must say I finally feel like I am actually getting somewhere in therapy now that I have been seeing my new therapist for 2 months, especially the past 3 weeks. This is a much more interactive therapy and she gives me a new exercise almost every week to try helping with anxiety and also dissociation. She also just seems to care more and has really validated things I've gone through, making it easier to talk about these things.

This past week we did a new exercise called "container". She walked me through a visual of putting the things that had really bothered me that week into a chest and locking it. Then she had me hide the chest in her office wherever I felt safe. I hid it underneath her desk, so she acted as a barrier to it. It has really helped! We also had talked about one of my sexual traumas last week. I have never been able to talk about these molestations/rapes in detail at all, but I've now been able to tell her small details about two of the incidences in the last 3 weeks. I put these traumas in there as well and surprisingly this week I have not had flashbacks of these 2 events! Other things have popped up, and I tried doing the container visual on my own, but it didn't work.

However it gives me hope that I could do this with her in session and that I trust her enough to leave those memories there. Although therapy has been harder, I finally feel like there is some progress and like I have a real connection with my therapist. I liked my old one, but she was too professional and not friendly enough. Plus my new T is older, where as my old T was like my age (a few years older), so there is more of a nurturing bond…

Just wanted to share I guess :). Has anyone else ever used this exercise??

 

[Justmehere]

That sounds like great work you are both doing together!

My container is on top of the building at my therapist office in a huge safe. :) It is a very helpful exercise!

 

[FindingMyself88]

Thank you @Justmehere!

That is an interesting place! Yes, I was surprised by how well it worked! I covered mine up with an "invisibility" cloak lol!

 

[Hashi]

I use lots of visualisations like this. They really work.

The last thing I worked on in therapy involved another person, and while I needed to contain the whole issue and take a break I didn't want to lock him up. My therapist and I came up with an imaginary "healing room" for him, so he would be safe and taken care of while I was safe from getting overwhelmed.

Weeks later in an art class I suddenly decided to work with an image that was a symbol of the issue. I often process things through art, but this was more like it had been processed and by doing the artwork I was realising that. It really had been healing all that time.

I wish that putting the issue in the healing room was all that was necessary. Unfortunately it wasn't, I'd done a lot of work up to that point and this was the final part. But this was a way to let my subconscious keep processing without me having to bear that consciously.

I love visualisation and imagery.