T and I have never planned trauma work...it just comes up when it comes up. For ME, it would be a hard thing to plan. Although I do think that T sometimes discourages me from it, depending on where I'm at emotionally and what else is going on in my life.

In my experience, T has been very careful with trauma work. I think he tries to pace things in such a way that I don't get overwhelmed. Before we started any trauma work, we worked a lot on containment. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best for ME when it comes to containment. I have a box that I painted that sits in his office, and for a long time he wanted me to imagine putting things in the box, but it never really worked. What DOES work for me is writing. I sometimes write things down on little slips of paper that I put in my box before I leave his office. At home, it helps to write things down too - it gets them out of my head and makes them more concrete and easier for me to deal with. Sometimes I can use the office itself as a container - and imagine T there, holding everything for me until I can deal with it.

I agree that it might make you feel less anxious if you knew exactly what to expect in the appointments when you process trauma.

This is hard work... to you!