Which Therapy Has Worked Best For You?

[birdeye67]

I have been using a particular method for a few years now, called internal family systems, and for me it has been incredibly helpful. I used it for the very beginning stages of my therapy, and it kind of loosened my mind up enough to where I am now able to start talking about my trauma.

A little bit about it: It's kind of like family systems therapy you use for actual people, though the internal part makes it completely abstract. It is an abstract way of "talking" to yourself; you do literal talking with "parts" of yourself. These parts may be traumatized parts, parts of your personality, or others, and you talk to them, respect them, as though they are real, separate characters within you wanting to make resolutions, each with their own needs and wants.

If you're not ready to actually talk about your history, this is absolutely helpful. I've spent quite a bit of time dissociating and in my own world, so this has helped in joint with those symptoms.

 

[Echo--Charlie]

Internal Family Systems is a well recognized treatment particularly in situations where survival has required various parts of the self. It was developed by Richard Schwartz and can be very effectice for specific situations. I honor you for your work.
ECH

 

[Crow]

Somatic Experiencing. Miraculous as far as the progress I've made recently. Way back, emdr was the thing that got me through the darkest days and through to a point where I'm not dissociating constantly. SE challenges my dissociation on a deeper level still. I've always done the talking to myself thing...these days I go with the physical feeling I'm experiencing and talk directly to that part of my body. "You don't have to do this alone anymore" is a key phrase and man does it work.

 

[piratelady]

I am curious, those of you that have a preference in the type of therapy: When you started therapy, did you find your therapist and say, "I want ____ Therapy"? My therapist and I have never discussed the type of therapy we are doing, he never said, "We will do CBT" or whatever, and I never asked for a specific therapy.

 

[Crow]

I've worked with my therapist so long that we've kind of evolved together. When I first started seeing her, she was a cognitive psychiatrist prescribing meds (which she stopped doing about eight years ago). As she learned new techniques, she'd try them in session. Some just didn't work for me - which I'd talk to her about - and some work great. So these days, I'll say one technique or another feels best today or she'll ask if it'd be okay with me if we worked with a specific technique. Hope that makes sense.

 

[surviving_it_all]

I've already posted what therapy works best for me. I do enjoy that my therapist will adapt to my needs. I have done some EMDR and some CBT. Sometimes, I cannot do them. My therapist is flexible. The last few times have been just talk therapy. I am okay with that for now. Its good to have a good therapist. I hated my previous therapists. I was doing very well with the therapist I had before the therapist I have now. I couldn't continue therapy with her because she was a short term therapist. Talk to your therapist about options. A good therapist will help you where you are.

 

[Abstract]

did you find your therapist and say, "I want ____ Therapy"

Pirate lady,
Absolutely not. I went in totally blind and I suspect most people do. And the strange thing is that I had actually studied a year or so of psychology and that included different approaches and what they entailed. But somehow that was separate to me. I never connected the two. That reflects my life in many other ways too.

I think its also worthwhile noting that a lot of therapists are trained in just one approach and if you go to them then that is what you will get. I think the therapists personality partly dictates the approach they choose. Although some may not realise when they start and will end up with an approach because of the facility they study at. Other therapists may have done more than one approach and swap between them to suit what they feel the client needs. And then they may well say something like, "lets do a little bit of CBT because...".

Its only as I fell into a different type of therapy that it started registering and started being self aware enough to start looking at this more deeply.

CBT tends to be what a lot of people get to start. Its widely available and considered a cost effective option as is often time limited.

The sad thing in my opinion is that most people probably don't realise that the therapist needs to have specialised in trauma to be effective if someone has been traumatised. No matter what approach they use.

 

[birdeye67]

Piratelady, I wasn't aware of any of the therapies or planned on discussing it either. I was lucky. And when I met my therapist she explained to me when we first met what her primary focus was, and I was like, "yes, yes, yes!! That sounds like what I need!!" and we just went from there. She also is very flexible and eases, switches in and out through methods which would most help her clients. So that also was very lucky for me to find someone like that.

 

[Hashi]

I knew I needed somatic therapy after reading about it. Genia, I wanted somatic experiencing but couldn't find a therapist. I had craniosacral therapy (it's close relative) instead and that was wonderful. I don't know how people do trauma work without somatic therapy. I couldn't have, at any rate.

Psychotherapy was different. Initially, I went to someone who specialised in my kind of trauma, without knowing anything about the different approaches. That was how I found out, the hard way, that CBT and exposure therapy are not for me.

Still not really knowing anything about therapy, I then went to a charity that fortunately did person-centred talk therapy, and that was the first time therapy helped me. When I was finishing there, my therapist and I talked about different approaches and what might help me next. That still didn't cover all the things that might be right for me, because it turned out that what really suits me isn't one of the most usual or obvious ones to think about. However, the awareness that there are such different approaches was what I needed. With that, I was able to explore more on my own.

Now that I have the awareness, the type of therapy approaches they use is my first filter when looking for a therapist.

 

[Brad1980]

When you started therapy, did you find your therapist and say, "I want ____ Therapy"

A friend of mine told of EMDR so I went and got a list of therapist that specialize in it. I call 10 people on the list and got one callback. So there wasn't a whole lot choice who I was going to see. My therapist has 40 years of experience and a great deal of knowledge. We tend to use psycho drama with the EMDR. We set scenes from the past and go in and figure out what beliefs I took a away from them, then set up what I would rather believe and we go in and change the beliefs. It has work well for me.

So the short answer to your question yes I went and was looking for a specific type of therapy. But I am not limited to that approach only. I have gotten really lucky with therapists I had a good one about 15 years ago when did mostly problem solving because I had no skills, and then my current one. If you don't like the one you have get another. It is just like any other profession there are good ones and there are bad ones but you don't have to be stuck with one therapy approach.

 

[fyredrift23]

When you started therapy, did you find your therapist and say, "I want ____ Therapy"?

No, I wasn't really familiar with the different types of therapy at that point. Also, I was not (consciously) aware of my needs. I feel very fortunate, though, because I found an excellent therapist the 1st try! I happen to identify with nearly all of his sub-specialties. I feel like some part of me (that I wasn't aware of) knew what I needed and what would work for me.

I've been seeing my therapist weekly for almost 2 years now. Therapy has changed my life for the better in ways I didn't think were possible. I'm much more confident in myself, I've managed to climb out of the darkest depths of depression relatively unscathed, and I am much more aware of my emotions and how I'm feeling in the moment.

My therapist aligns himself with Object-Relations Theory and uses Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy and traces of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. We don't do any kind of specific, deliberate work with CBT exercises and the like. However, he believes that one's way of thinking and the sort of negative or positive self-talk one uses dramatically affects their actions and emotions.

All of this is used via talk therapy/psychotherapy. It's a sort of blend, I guess. While it's sometimes difficult for me to share verbally, I also share through Journal entries. Writing has helped me communicate my feelings and thoughts tremendously. I can't always find the right words to say while I'm talking to him, but if I have some time alone to think and reflect, I seem to be able to express myself ridiculously well.

Another benefit of the writing/talk therapy combo is I can have stuff "on paper" that I can bring to sessions. The words are out in the open where I can re-visit them if I need to or want to. This also helps me get around my various defense mechanisms that would otherwise prevent me from sharing what I wanted.

Though I'm a very cerebral person, I can't really manipulate my thoughts that well, so CBT doesn't really work for me. It's not enough. I believe in the model, but I need to be able to tackle my feelings: identifying them, acknowledging and validating them, and understanding them.

Pirate lady,
The sad thing in my opinion is that most people probably don't realise that the therapist needs to have specialised in trauma to be effective if someone has been traumatised. No matter what approach they use.

My therapist also sub-specializes in trauma, and I've only relatively recently learned how pivotal a role that has played in my recovery. He knows when to push and when to back-off. When I have trouble sharing, he makes sure to applaud my efforts, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant. He isn't shocked when I tell him things. He shows compassion and concern in his face and asks gentle questions in a soothing tone when I share.

What I mean by "gentle questions" is he recognizes how difficult it is for me to share and how much energy I use to do it as a result. In those moments, I'm not able to answer questions about other people or the event itself. It would shift the focus from me and my feelings, and it's hard enough for me to stay focused there as it is. I don't know that people who are not trained to deal with trauma can ask the right questions at the right time, so as not to disturb the patient/client and wreck any progress made.

But if none of this is making sense, please tell me :laugh: