hey there. i'll admit i don't really know very much about precisely what your therapist is doing with you in your therapy sessions (e.g., whether it is considered to be some kind of 'systematic desensitisation' or 'visualisation for relaxation' or quite what) but... i've expressed my concerns about the hypnosis already. i'm sorry i went on about that before... there were some good posts after mine and i'm glad other people were able to jump on in and be more helpful than me (i really do miss the mark sometimes).

it is making more sense to me now... that she is using the techniques so that you get to talking about the trauma *quickly* though (i.e., so that treatment is fast which the insurance companies like). i'm wary about using hypnosis to facilitate that (for different reasons than the reasons i was concerned about hypnosis before). basically... i think it can be more profitable to learn to trust appropriately so that generalises back to real life rather than being 'conned' into trusing via some technique that doesn't really have an 'outside therapy' analogue that is likely to profit you any...

anyhoo... back to the insurance provider situation...

you are right that there is 'brief psychodynamic therapy' which is comperable to 'cognitive behavioural therapy' with respect to time frame. individual therapists can be more or less wedded to one particular theoretical orientation (such as CBT) and more or less competent in / willing to try some techniques and strategies from other (e.g., psychodynamic or humanistic / existential) types of approaches. i know a few people who have trained in CBT but who personally find CBT to be of limited usefulness. It was just that that is what they learned to do in their training and their supervisors were fairly hostile to alternative approaches. They have read up on alternative approaches and attended seminars, conferences, and workshops etc, however. They say that they enjoy the opportunity to practice more from that orientation with clients who are willing.

Listing 'CBT' as a theoretical orientation is a big winner for the insurance companies. The insurance companies listing you as a provider who they will reimburse is a big winner for your private practice. That isn't to say that the therapists on the list 'prefer' CBT but it is to say that your insurance provider does. If I were you... I would try the list again (even those who claim they are CBT therapists) and I'd say that you have done CBT and haven't had much success with that for trauma related issues and you are keen to try something more psychodynamic. Are they willing / able to do something like that or not?

Certainly worth a shot.