Other parts of the world I don't know I live in the USA and my post specifically stated USA therapists. If you are in another country your areas board of certified and licenced clinical social workers can tell you if it is a part of the training process there.

When I was checking in on the training and so on when I was a vollunteer on a hotline and taking psych courses in college. I also went through some of that training as a part of my orientation for woring at a crisis center as a vollunteer and it was the counselors that trained us. While I was going through the orientation to work at the crisis center we had guest speakiers from the local mental health agency and they handed out some stuff about basic training for therapists in the state I was in and nationwide because therapists can move from state to state and practice, in case any of us wanted to use our college psych courses to go on into the field of mental health. One of the standard protocals is for becoming a therapist is doing internship and working with a variety of clients under supervision and during the college class work and during orientation we had to role play working with various types of clients including self injurers, suicidals, violent adults, violent children with mental problems. The reason their training is so diverse is because a therapist unless they are worknig a private practice and can choose the type of clients that they see, they work in agencies who assign them their clients. Therapists work with who ever the supervisor who hands out the caseloads tell them too, and alot of times people are not going to admit to being a violent type person right on intake so the therapists must be ready to handle situations when they spontaniously happen, and people working at crisis centers don't pick their clients either we got what ever sitation and who ever walked in the door or what ever situation or person the local ER called us about. If we felt we were not capable of handling a situation a superviser stayed in the room with us.

i myself had to deal with an escaped prison inmate who showed up on college grounds and I happened to be working the college office and taking classes that day and when I sent a student to put a call in to the crisis center and the police the local on call person with the center that night was in the ER with a rape victim. and the next one was a 15 minute drive away. That standard training for therapists and crisis intervention came in real handy that night. Luckily I didn't find out the guy was an escaped prisoner from a downstate prison. I probably would have passed out instead of sitting there keeping him calm and focused on me instead of the students and classes going on upstairs in the classrooms,until help arrived.

Granted yes there are clients that attempt to use crisis situations as an attention getter and therapists in this country have strict mental health ethics laws and rules surrounding the client therapist relationship and working with clients to promote independance not dependance for this reason and and each agency has set protocals of what to do when they see a client using therapy time for attention instead of work on their problems.

for starters here in the USA the first few sessions are used for getting to know each other and filling in paperwork as to why the person is entering therapy, what their problems are and what goals they want to accomplish while in therapy. Usually this goal sheet is done every 6 months especially if the person is paying by some form of medical, mental insurance polocy. (medicaid, state, blue cross and so on) Then the sessions after that are geared for working towards accomplishing those goals set down during the first few sessions. When the therapist notices the client is using therapy time for gaining attention through creating crisises instead of working on their problems and goals the therapist either informs the client what the agencys protocal is concerning extreme crisies (self injury, suicidal or whatever beintentional behavior is happening) protocal is. usually the protocals include referring the client after hours to the local ER instead of taking their calls after hours. During hours the therapist no matter what problem the client comes in with, stays focused on solutions for their problems or decreases their sessions if the client repeatedly does not work on their goals and solving their problems, or transfers the client to another therapist so that the client cannot continue to manipulate the preferred therapist for attention.

Going off - there are a lot of therapy techniques geared towards the client expressing the extreme emotions that they have locked in side for example punching pillows, hitting a chair with a bat, screaming or yelling at their abuser if needed and so on.

Yes they are supposed to be controlled going off situations but I have witnessed many times when those techniques have been used and the therapist has had to follow the training protocal of leaving the room and calling in reinforcements of co workers, supervisors, or the police..

Table throwing situation SKR happened on to that piece of memory without realizing it was there. I am an amnesia DID which means I have no idea what and how many memorys were separated and stored at my unconscious level (repressed memories). (A typical person with Dissociative Identity Disorder can have a minimum of 2 repressed memories being acted out unconsciously and over 200 hundred for maximum number of repressed memory pieces being acted out unconsciously spontaniously when triggered) which is what DID is - a person who when triggered switches into acting out repressed memories unconsciously while they are mentally unaware of what is going on.

Since my memories have been separated and stored at my unconscious level of thinking I can't tell my therapist what they are so my therapist finds out when I act the pieces of memories out.

With DID there is no warning. You want an idea of what its like have you ever saw the movie "Sybil". Its a bit over dramatized for getting people to watch it but it does represent the unpredictableness of "switches" as in a person can switch in a snap into acting out any number of pieces of memories.

I am a rapid switcher and I switch give or take 5- 10 times a day. I can be doing something while fully aware one second and then next from my perspective I am floating in my mental safe place but what people around me see is my physically acting out a memory. I can be talking to a friend one minute and then next standing there with her telling me I just beat up her boyfriend, or one minute making dinner and then next sitting in the bathtub taking a bath and so on.

In the situation of the table getting thrown one second I was talking about my child who is in residential treatment facility right now and the next second I was feeling far away and floating in my mental safe place and the next SKR was not in the room and the room was a mess, the next second SKR was sitting in front of me asking if I remembered throwing the table.

After I told her I remember talking about my child and then being far away and then she was gone and then she was back she told me that she had set up the table because while talking about my child I got up and looked out the window then I sat down and she asked me if I could draw her a picture because I could not tell her what I was seeing. I apparently told her yes so she set up the table and crayons and markers, I drew a picture and then I threw the table. the table was flying along with the crayons and markers and sketch book.

When I had come aware and she was not in the room it was because she went down stairs for help and to call the supervisor. When I became aware and she was in the room she said that was when she had been in the room about 5 minutes trying to talk to me to find out what memory piece I was in at that moment. Then she got permission from me to call a friend and the friend was going to come pick me up to take me home She wanted me to have some time to calm down and relax and because of what happened we needed to slow down on my therapy program and instead of focusing on my nightmare we had to meet more often to work on gaining control of my dissociating into that one piece of memory because if throwing things while I was dissociated happened again we could not work together and I may have to be hospitalized. When I asked SKR if I had hurt her or broke anything in the office because at home things do get broke sometimes when I dissociate. she told me she was fine a bit scared the table had hit her knee but that was not going to scare her away from being ny therapist and as for room damage therapy agencys carry insurance to cover damages when unpredictable things like this happens because in the business of mental health there is no predicting when a person is going to get triggered into going off let alone to my extent. A certain amount is expected which is why therapy agencies the insurance policys . going off to my extent is expected with DID clients because there is no predicting what the repressed memories are until the person with DID gets triggered into acting those memories out.

TRUE DID switching is trigger related not based on getting attention which is why switching increases with seeing a therapist. The therapist and client are working on remembering the abuse situations that the person cannot remember.

Can a rape victim control a flashback - (Ok Im not going to have a flashback until I see my therapist.) No flashbacks happen when the person encounters a situation that reminds them of the abuse they went through. what are flashbacks memories of traumatic events.

Same with DID switching. When a person with DID encounters a situation that upsets them the piece of memory that is related to the topic or situation replays.

DID's can't say ok Im not going to dissociate until I see my therapist. Dissociation is a part of their life in every aspect of their lives.

For example - Just today I was sitting in an eye doctors office for my routine check and the assistant put eye drops in my eyes and the next thing I know the appointment is over and the doctor is telling me what the test results were. From there I went to the local library. I was in an elevator and a drunk got on. The next thing I know I am sitting in the bathroom and one of the librarians is asking me if I need any help because I had been screaming while sitting on the bathroom floor. I told her I was fine and went to the computers. then I went downstairs and had lunch with a friend the next thing I know Im sitting at my therapist office for my normal session. Then I biked home I stopped to draw some ducks. The next thing I know I am in my grocery store. then I went home and watched some tv. The next thing I know I am taking a bath. I got out and made dinner and ate it. The next thing I know I am sitting on the floor coloring in a coloring book -

Where is the attention - I live alone, I do my own grocery shopping, I do my research and write my books at the library alone, When I talked to my friend to fill in my dissociation log she told me that what I couldnt remember was that we had coffee and ate sandwhich and talked about a book that both of us were reading. She didn't even notice I had dissociated until I swore a specific word which when I am completely aware I don't use a particular word. my therapist had wrote my appointment time down wrong so we never had the session just rescheduled. and I make up my own therapy projects and do most of my therapy work at home when I am alone such as drawing and other artwork, dissociation logs, depression management logs, anxiety managment logs, journaling, awareness therapy, stimulating my senses therapy work all most of which my therapist never sees. My therapist constantly asks me if I am still aware because I switch so often that she cannot tell from one second to the next if I am fully aware or answering her questions from memory pieces.

If I was switching to gain my therapist attention I would only be switching with my therapist and my switching would be over dramatized so that I gain her attention and my therapy work would only be worked on with my therapist.

DID does not work on the realm of gaining attention unless the person is not a true DID. DID starts in childhood and is in every aspect of the persons life not just in the therapy room.