I understand the distinction you are making here and I have felt that way as well. That's pretty maddening. I think those therapists completely misunderstand. It is the patterns that are familiar--that doesn't mean the situations they lead to are any less harmful or any less real. If someone gets stabbed traumatically, then becomes obsessed with self-defense in the aftermath, trying to conquer their PTSD, and in the process of all this exposure to weapons and fighting, ends up being stabbed again, certainly the chain of events that led from the first scar to the second does not negate the misfortune of the fact that there are two scars