interesting post, sawe . to take this in a different direction - i'm actually rather curious about your second guessing the "truth" of what that poster said about being "done" (i'm not commenting on the veracity of their opinion - i have no idea who you're referring to, and i dont want to judge their situation at any rate).

jmo, but trauma work can take many forms, and a lot of it falls outside the conventional wisdom outlined by judith herman. for example, "telling the story" isn't something i'm ever likely to engage in, and pretty much all of my therapists have agreed it would be harmful for me to go in depth with it also. instead my focus has been on establishing trust (oh boy, that's been a 5 year long process, and is still continuing) and working on present day stuff (relationships/society).

at the same time, austin-t told me about one of his clients who only wanted to tell her story a few times, and who after that was "done" with therapy - she had a great life set up now, but needed to process that period in her past with someone to get closure on it. once she'd told her story (she saw him for 8 weeks) she was happy to move on, because no other work needed to be done. he did say it was a pretty gut wrenching 8 weeks for them both, though.

just been thinking & talking about this recently, because i know the typical formula and also because i know i won't be following it, and there is a concern that other people will question my "doneness" because i've excluded one of the steps. austin-t runs a trauma therapy group, and we'd been discussing whether i would benefit from joining it, but eventually we decided it probably wasn't in my best interest because some people have very set ideas about what trauma work involves, and that i didn't need to feel like i wasn't on par with the rest of the group (or justify myself to them) because i was following the path which was best for me.

i do think hermann is an interesting read though for anyone interested in what trauma work can involve. ive asked about trauma work here before when i've been stuck - it's a good recommendation for me to keep in mind .