Your therapist's treatment plan is not all bad because a therapist has to learn the basics about how to provide a "safe place" and that the therapist is "a witness" for a patient while the patient discusses their challenges and life experiences.

However, it is also important for a therapist to understand PTSD because when the patient comes in challenged the way you are describing, the therapist should be able to explain it and help you develop not only an understanding of it, but ways to help yourself manage it better, rather then feeding into it unknowingly.

What concerns me about your therapist suggesting that you have other disorders, is she is fishing with you, you don't need that, you need someone who "knows" how to answer your questions, who understands the disorder and can give you the answers and be there to help you work through it.

IMHO, someone who struggles with PTSD feels very lost and they just don't understand "why". The questions you are presenting are "common" questions that a therapist needs to have the ability to answer for you rather then sit there pondering these other disorders which can add to your confusion instead of staying the course of dealing with and understanding the "progression" of the challenging symptoms that PTSD presents. To me that is like someone who presents to a doctor with a broken leg and the doctor starts to suggest it may be a sprain, or your need for better shoes, or a pulled muscle, or you are just exerting yourself too much, well that doesn't address the "real issue" now does it?

It "is" important to have a therapist that is kind and helps you "feel safe" as well as is a person who is calm and listens to you. However, that in itself is not enough with PTSD, because you will be having a lot of questions as you work through it and you need to have the therapist understand each stage and help you keep moving forward even though you are "challenged".

When someone has PTSD, they have experienced something traumatic that has really affected their brain and the way they now look at so many different day to day things they experience in their lives. The person who is challenged with PTSD is much more "sensitive" then before and they really get very confused about it. Well, because of this, there is a stronger and stronger desire to withdraw simply because the person is confused and often fears how they may react in different situations, but also how different situations can affect them to where they suddenly get crippled with anxiety and with that get confused and have a strong urge to "run" or find some place quiet and safe so they can have time to think about "what that confusion they experienced meant".

This confusion can lead to a person having very bad thoughts and being very hard on "self" with frustration and anger and a sense of being "inept to having a normal life" somehow. It is very important a therapist knows how to identify these symptoms and be able to talk their patients through it where the patient feels their therapist "knows what they are dealing with and also knows how to really treat and understand it". One simply cannot have the blind leading the blind with PTSD, it is too challenging for that IMHO.

Alisha, when I had experienced so much loss from my neighbors dog running laps around my horses and ponies at night that lead to them having so many injuries that I never could have ever imagined dealing with, and I lost my favorite one in spite of my efforts to save her, I just broke. My neighbor admitted knowing that their containment system had been malfunctioning and that their dog had been getting out, yet they kept failing to fix it and kept taking chances every time they let it out at night thinking I would not see it on my property.

Well, I was doing nothing but tending to so many injuries for a few months until I was so exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed I broke. I went to a psych ward begging for "rest and grief counseling" because I was so completely overwhelmed. I did not get treated the way I needed at all, instead I was further traumatized, it was awful. I was there for 9 days over the Thanksgiving Holiday, and my family was angry with me and there was no "caring presence" there for me "at all", but instead a cold room, constantly being disturbed every 15 minutes, and surrounded by other people who were "very disturbed and scary". For the past few days I have been having flashbacks and the shakes where I can't get warm, all from that time I was in that place alone, scared, locked into, cold, with no one to comfort me. I also was misdiagnosed, even though I had clearly expressed all the red flags that anyone familiar with "trauma treatment" would know how to treat, which was not the way "I" was treated "at all". I not only have PTSD, but I also struggle with Complicated Grief Disorder. And I only got to finally understand that latter diagnoses in just the past few months. I would be doing so much better had I been treated correctly in the beginning instead of being around people who just did not have the knowledge (even though they were professionals) to recognize the signs and know the proper treatment.

I understand you feel safe with this T, that is important, but it is also important that a therapist really understand "what you are really struggling with" too. If I was in your situation, I would be bringing information about PTSD to this therapist so she would not be "fishing around with other diagnoses" that is not helpful for you.

(((Hugs)))
OE