Well, I will give you my opinion, keep in mind I am not a professional though. I had been diagnosed Bipolar I and PTSD but it has been explained to me that I only have PTSD and why the Bipolar was confused.

At first I was put on Welbutrin, which is not recommended for PTSD, it was awful. The only thing I took for a while was the Klonopin because I could not sleep and was having too many night mares and night terrors. I never experienced a psychotic episode, but I have experienced some horrific PTSD debilitating cycles. The klonopin did help, but I really struggled badly for a while.

I found a therapist who was very knowledgeable about "trauma work" and that began to help me a lot. I had a lot of stressful things going on in my life at the same time, so it was hard to gain on the trauma work, but I began making progress "slowly". I began to slowly realize what the flashbacks meant and while some of them were horrible, I knew they would not last. I began to also realize that everything that came forward meant something and to be patient and try to see what it was. Oh, I had a lot of triggers, riddled with them really, never imagined I would ever experience that. I just kept working at it, it's been a few years and I am way better then I was, but not PTSD free.

It's hard because the brain is very distracted. Instead of the frontal executive part just checking here and there (the just that many want to do again), it is really searching through and distracted by the subconscious mind. I could not get "restorative" sleep for a long time because I needed more information so my brain could finally process all the hurts I did not realize were so unresolved.

I began to notice that what would first come forward in a major surprising way, after talking it through and putting it all together, the episodes were less and less powerful.
For the childhood issues, I asked questions in general, and my T was wonderful giving me a lot of general information and I honestly feel that is better because that's what children do, ask questions, often they really don't know how to feel. It's the adult mind that gets more upset and wonders "was I bad"?

I have learned a lot about myself, making peace with it all takes time, it's a lot of work and takes a few years depending on the individual.

I think it is important that a T not be pushy, but patient. It has helped me to work at it that way. I sure had a lot of anger stuffed that I had not realized.

Hope that helps

((Hugs))
OE