Two Therapists

[poeticprincess88]

So I'm stuck between two therapists. I hired the one to help me with my eating disorder the other is for my trauma work. Lately the Eating Disorder Therapist has been hitting on the trauma stuff. I'm left between the two appointments stuck. I'm working on settling stuff with EMDR and Emotional Freedom Therapy (EFT) then I go to Eating disorder counseling and she wants to talk about it all and I'm feeling like I just need to dump one of the counselors.My PTSD counselor who does EMDR isn't trained in Eating disorders he doesn't actually focus on it at all. The other therapist she knows trauma stuff but she's more talk therapy. The hour is up you get booted out the door. So I'm stuck trying to figure out how to balance two types of therapy to get the fullness of recovery.

 

[Abstract]

Hi PP,
It's great you have two therapists (T) that work for you in some way.

Where are you with the eating disorder (ED)? I think it can be impossible to do the trauma work if we are not physically stable enough and that includes nutrition. So what do you realistically think would happen if you had no one to check the ED and continued difficult trauma work?

It seems it is more the ED T seems to be the one overstepping her bounds. Would it be an option to speak to her about how it makes it confusing and tell her your situation. To set boundaries in place. My t's may even be able to sort it out between them.

Alternatively if you feel she addresses everything you need and that the EMDR isn't working any better than normal T then you could just stick to her.

Good luck.

 

[poeticprincess88]

The EMDR is working good most of the time. My eating disorder goes back and forth. Back in September I almost died from relapse. I'm trying to keep up with both treatments but it's hard to work on both. I know if I'm totally working on just trauma my eating disorder could get worse. The eating disorder feeds off the trauma.

Thank you for your advice. I'll consider what you said.

 

[MomOfTwo]

Maybe there is a way that both therapists could conferance with you and work on a plan together so they both know what each other is doing or come up with a plan for one of them to be able to handle both the trauma and eating disorder.

 

[Abstract]

I agree with momoftwo. It is darn hard to work on both but sadly I think leaving the ED can end up making one very unstable and disrupt everything. Also the brain becomes very unstable if ED's get out of hand and that can stop meds working, make suicidal issues much worse etc. If you almost died from relapse in September then I think you are very far from being safe to leave it.

And if EMDR is helping then it seems very important to continue if you can.

Often when one is doing multiple therapies then it is important for the professionals to communicate in some way.

 

[Ncole]

I recently had a similar situation. My previous therapist recommended me to another therapist just for treatment for my eating disorder. After meeting with the second therapist I realized that she also had a specialty in trauma/PTSD. I talked to her about what I should do, we talked through it, processed the pros and cons and decided that just seeing her is the best course of action. If I were you I'd talk to whichever therapist you feel is the most beneficial and find out what they think you should do. Maybe they will suggest keeping them both or refer you to someone who, like my therapist, specializes in both eating disorders and PTSD. I am SO thankful that I found one person to do it all.

 

[maddog]

Personally, I think that when and if possible, one therapist "doing it all" is the ideal scenario. Certainly for me, therapeutic bonds and trust are hard fought, not easily achieved and most definitely not automatically transferrable across therapists, so wherever you can avoid having to slog through those processes more than once, I think is a good thing.

That said, you also need to be working with people qualified to address the specific issues you need addressing, and if you can't find one person with that complete skill set then I think that multiple therapists are better than one who is not able to meet your holistic needs.

I personally work with a primary therapist (psychologist) and a psychiatrist, but in my mind have only one therapeutic relationship, though my doctor would probably beg to differ. Sadly, my doctor is necessary for the purpose of medication, hospital admission and medico-legal reasons related to my employment, and these are roles my psychologist can't fulfill unfortunately. It does require me to provide some level of trauma and other detail to my psychiatrist, which I would prefer not to do but which is required in order for him to adequately diagnose and report on my condition and treatment for employment and insurance reasons.

In the ideal world, we would all have one perfect therapist with the skills to adequately address every possible issue we might face...

Maddog