Thanks so much for answering, everybody. It seems that most of you have not had such a problem tolerating the pain of other parts of you and giving comfort to them. I don't know why it is so hard for me!!

What i experience is that i start out in a logical, adult frame of mind. But once my t starts talking to a child part of me, or asking about a particular trauma I went through as a child - depending on how disturbing the trauma was, I will get filled with pain and revert to feeling like i'm a little girl going through the trauma all over again! I will lose the adult logical part of my mind, or else the traumatized pained child part will be way stronger and take over.

When I attempt to comfort that scared, hurt little girl part of me, it feels haphazard and doesn't really work. The child alter/part does not feel comforted by the adult me. She wants comfort from my t instead. And the adult part of me ends up feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and exhausted by getting in touch with the buried pain that came out. It usually takes me 2-3 days to overcome the exhausted/traumatized/depressed feelings the follow such "rescue attempts." It just feels like it brings up all the trauma and pain, which hurts the child part all over again, and wears out and frustrates the adult part who tries to help her.

I don't know what to do, but am ready to stop even trying! It seems that i am just too sensitive to tolerate this sort of work, and i can't seem to keep the pain at a tolerable level without it overtaking me completely.

I feel like a therapy failure!