One thing I try to remember is I don't have to do everything all at once. Just moving in the direction I want to go can help.

My T and I agreed to terminate (we were both going to retire) and had over a year and a half timeline! However, the idea of leaving T/terminating was not something I could tolerate thinking about/dealing with at all at first. So, whenever I'd get anxious, all I could do was remind myself over and over, "we're not terminating today; it's not happening now."

You only have to get through a current moment, not be "cured" yet. Remind yourself when you think of something upsetting that it's not "now" and it's just "thought". That was my second step toward termination, I began to think and then talk a little about it because it wasn't "now". Thinking/talking is just words and words are not action.

But it was from talking to another and learning to "share" fears and discuss them that most of the help from my T came. It's not so scary or lonely if you feel someone understands and is "there" with you. Learning to share and let my T be with me and sitting with my fears were what got me over most of them (and/or showed me I could do something about them, help myself).

The initial work is just "seeing" what is there, how big it is, what it's made of, how it works, etc. None of that is the real deal, it isn't happening "again". It's a little bit like dreams where you have "monsters" and have to face them and stand up to them before they and the bad dreams will go away.