I would schedule a session before the event so my T and I could come up with strategies for me to get through the event, cope in the aftermath, etc. In therapy, I want to learn to get over my triggers, so meeting beforehand would help me towards that goal. My T always has good ideas for how to handle things like this. For example, I've gotten much better at funerals, which I would totally refuse to go to before--they were such a huge trigger. My T is also really good at helping build my ego strength in a short term situation. So if I met with him right before the triggering event, he could give me strength to make it through. Then when I did make it through, I would get reinforcement from that (I did it!) and this builds my confidence that I can handle these things. T and I don't even do the ego strength stuff anymore because I've gotten good enough at it myself. Having my T help before the event is kind of like riding a bike with training wheels. As I get better at it, I don't need those wheels (the beforehand meetings).

Good luck with the event, tigergrrl. Sounds hard.