Quote:
Originally Posted by shakespeare47
I saw my first counselor in 1988, when I was 22.
O.k.: She was kind and understanding and a little worried about me because I was feeling suicidal, and she was the first person I told about the fact I was sexually molested by a stranger when I was 10.
But, she also tried hypnotherapy and kept insisting that there might be more memories that I just didn't remember.
It threw me into a very confusing time... I came to her because of what I remembered.... and she wanted me to try and remember more. Was there more? I now seriously doubt it... and feel angry at her because I suspect she was just caught up in the recovered memory craze, something that was very popular at the time. As it is, she made things worse for me.. in a time when I really needed help.
Anyone else have a similar experience?
The entire episode has made me very leery of psychology in general, and psychotherapy, specifically.
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Good morning,
I was thrown into therapy at that time. I remembered so much of every manner of abuse and my thoughts were " Yup, it happened, no big deal". An uncle came to apologize for sexually abusing me from ages 4-6. I started school when I was 4, so I should have remembered something. I felt totally adrift and wondered what else my mind had hidden. My sister was older and remembered the abuse by this uncle.
I saw a therapist who did hypnosis which was very helpful when I finally stopped testing her. She used it for containment when I was overwhelmed. I could call her on the phone and we could get the anxiety and terror dealt with until I saw her.
We started out working on what I had remembered and then when more surfaced, we dealt with them. I never remembered any abuse by my uncle. She never hnotized trying to unearth the repressed memories. I had enough to deal with, I didn't to go on some psychlogical dig to unearth any more.
Repressed memories do exist, I still have them. They are not interfering with my life, so unless something surfaced, they shall remain where they are. Hypnosis is not necessarily bad, it depends who is doing it and why.
Regards,
Sabra