This is a good thread. It is interesting to hear how other Ts see PC. My T is happy for me that I have this as an additional support system. He said it counts toward group therapy hours :-) It allows me to process through a lot of stuff and also connect with others. It is a way of seeing my own thought process and at the same time seeing how others think and feel.

My T does have a history of CSA, and I do know it has impacted the way he is with me in therapy. He DOES understand what I am going through. And he is able to give me safely what I could not get from a T who read it or was schooled in it. They might know how to say things that help, but my T looks at me without words - and his eyes tell me that he not only understands what I am going through, but he wishes I didn't feel the way he has felt before. But he also shows me that there is hope on the other side.

It is easy for someone who hasn't been there to read about wellness and tell others how it can be.. and that is fine. But it is hard for someone like me who knows the pain to trust someone who has not been there when they say "You will get over feeling like this." How do they KNOW that? But my T - when he tells me "This will pass" - I know it is truth because he has walked in my shoes. I wish he hadn't. I wish no one had to ever know the pain CSA causes. But he did know it. And well, I look in his eyes and see a warrior who remains standing in spite of everything he went through. And even when things happen still for him, he keeps on being a T for others. I see it. I can see the sessions when he had to force himself to be there when it was hard - because he knew somoene that day needed him.

Just seeing that makes me think that maybe that is how I can be too. Maybe... with some more time and hard work, I can be that type of a person. And that is why I am in therapy anyway. I want to be a person I admire.

So not saying every T has to first hand know every issue clients have. But I do think it is worth the time and energy to find a T who does really understand your issues in a deeper way than book learning or seminars.