the cut and dry answer is yea thats what a therapist does but its not as cut and dry as just forcing a trigger on you. its not like that.

A therapist job (no matter what the issue is) is to get you to look at your problems from all angles and then solve your problems using the new coping skills that they are teaching you - breathing exercises, grounding techniques, relaxation techniques, journalling, and challenging yoursaelf to look at the problem from all angles.

When a client avoids an issue they know right there that is a triggering topic or problem, but their job is to not let you avoid that topic or problem so they are going to keep bringing that topic up until you are no longer avoiding that problem or issue. Therapists aren't supposed to be friends that just talk to you about what you want them to talk about and only say what you want them to say. A person can get that for free by calling or going and visiting a friend that always agrees with them. A therapist is trained to see what issues the clients are avoiding and find out why they are avoiding that issue and help the client come up with ways to address that problem in whatever ways the client can.

For some just sitting in a room and talking will "accidentally purposely" trigger the client into remembering something they have forgotten. meaning trhe therapist knows that topic is a hot one so they purposely stear the conversation around to that issue and in some cases the client does not realize they are on to that topic until they have been "accidentally" triggered.

For other people they need the direct approach of the therapist flat out saying you keep avoiding this issue why? or as my therapist LL sometimes does says - now you know that I am blunt right so I am going to say this right out and goes for it of opening the topic.

Other people need a less direct and more constructive hands on way other then talking because just talking will trigger the person so bad that they like in my case go floating off to la la land. And thats where distracting activities like taking a walk, doing art work, journaling and relaxation visualization and so on helps the client feel more comfortable so that their mental guards so to speak are not throwing walls up before anything can even begin.

The end result is that the client will at some point experience or come face to face with their problems instead of avoiding them and stuffing them and will be able to see the problems and solutions so that they will have a better life.

I chose to take a bit of all these therapeutic approaches and developed my own therapy progran that would work for me. When I was putting my therapy program together I was under strick mums the word by a lawyer about my having DID but yet at the same time the lawyer told my therapist at that time SKR and I to take care of it and get it done as fast as possible so I didn't have much time to relax and get used to how most therapy process is work on grounding and relaxation then locate the trigger and do something about the trigger by way of the grounding techniques and so on. from day one we had to find out what was making me suicidal, what was making me depressed what was the flashbacks that I was having and what was making them happen. and we had only one year to take care of things to DHS standards or lose my son to adoption and so on.

So we hit the books and professionals and did what they told us to do - use grounding techniques, when ever I get triggered write it down so that we knew what had triggered me and put as many coping tools around that trigger so I no longer get triggered by that.

LL and I are carrying on with what SKR and I was doing. before she started pushing me a little bit on my nightmare she made sure that going for remembering those repressed memories was my route of choice. I think her wording was something like - "you are strong, couragious and have tenasity and you want to remember ... LOL I told her yup sure do Im not always strong and couragious but definately am stuborn to the point where I will remember one way or another.

this is no different then a therapist working on day to day problems and having the person use grounding techniques, relaxation and so on to keep themselves from panicing and so on in their day to day life and then months to years later moving on to taking care of the past issues now that the persons daily life is on track and they have had all that time using their new coping tools taught to them that past months and years.

The only difference in what I do is that I had no choice if I wanted to keep my parental right I had to not only work on my day to day life but at the same time I had to take care of the problems associated with the past. and part of that was locating what was upsetting me to the point where I was dissociating. and when you have a conversation and are talking about for example going to the mall and eating in the food court and shopping in all the different stores the trigger can be any of a million different things and the way to narrow it down is to talk about the food court ok she didn't get triggered there now the book store, nope no trigger in that, the bus ride oops here come the panic attack so the trigger is something that happened on that bus when traveling throught the huge major city. now to expose and stear the conversation to anything that has to do with riding a bus - how else but to get into a car and ride around and hit on key areas of the route traveled to see if anything happens.

Granted the way SKR and I did things to locate the triggers when I got triggered was not the right thing for every person with DID but the end result was the same accomplished in years less time - locate the trigger and put in place grounding techniques and anything else we could think of to make it so that I am not with the DHS caseworker riding to my sons therapeutic school and have a panic attack along the way.

Some therapists take the direct approach that takes less time to locate the triggers and others take the subtle route that can take years.

I come up against people on line who put down the fact that my therapist and I used the quickest possible route to locating my triggers and putting in place my new coping tools so that I no longer get triggered.

whether or not a person takes a year or 20 years to locate their triggers and learn coping tools doesn't make how they are doing things wrong. All it makes it is that it is right for that person. and thats what therapy is - a therapist tayloring a clients therapy program based on what THAT one client needs. Its not my place to put down and tear apart someone elses therapy program just like its not other persons place to tear apart the type of therapy program that my therapist and I chose to do. So which ever way you decide to go after your repressed memories I know that you are doing what is right for YOU.

the direct route that you have chosen is hard but if you keep your sense of humor and take breaks here and there you will be fine and possibly years ahead of other DIDers on your therapist caseload like I am.

Hang in there.