My T sometimes mentions pre-verbal events (he doesn't use the word "trauma") and how I may have been affected by them. I have memories - which have emerged since I started therapy - of being slapped when I said the wrong thing when I was a very young child, probably about three or four... that's obviously not pre-verbal since i did have words at that point, but it's something that may have contributed to my difficulties in finding the right words. I am not sure how often this happened, or what the exact contexts were, but I remember it happening.
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Originally Posted by boredporcupine
If you have an explicit memory of the traumatic event, no matter how early, then what's stopping you from bringing it up and talking about it? It seems like if you can remember it, then you would be able to talk it through.
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For me, that is not necessarily the case, for the reasons above. Words don't come very easily when I have to describe my memories or thoughts - T thought at first it was a neurological barrier, but we've been able to get around it on occasion, so it's psychological. But still there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boredporcupine
And even if that memory isn't "real" in the sense that the exact event might not have happened quite that way (just like we often times misremember even recent memories), I still think it's "real" in the sense that it captures something of your reality at a young age or how you experienced it. It is part of the picture of your inner world (just like dreams are often discussed in therapy because they can reveal something about how we view ourselves and life) and as such is as valid for discussion in therapy as anything else.
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Yes. The important thing is not getting to the roots of exactly what happened, in reality, and how and how often or when or where. (I know that you, wikidpissah, have mentioned that it feels irrelevant to try to recall each incident of the abuse you went through.) The important thing is examining how the memory affects you. Which means telling the story and returning to the memory, but not laying it down as "real" in an objective sense, only in a subjective sense.
Or something like that. This is, again, paraphrasing my T.