I choose "other". My answer would be, "yes, yes, yes."

I've recently left the old therapist, and will need to look for a new one, but that was part of the problem. Both #1 and #2 in your list.

#1... therapy often makes me feel lousy. I end up feeling misunderstood and invalidated. A lot. From several therapists. I get that I *shouldn't*, and I've tried discussing this with the therapist, but it keeps happening, over and over, and the therapists I've seen have not been helpful in understanding it, working with it, or preventing it.

#2. I seem to gravitate towards avoidance as a coping mechanism (lots of dissociation, which I understand works well with that). When I get too close to certain things in my head, I get very triggered. After approx. 7 years or more years with no self-harm (and no therapy), therapy is what made me start back up again (doing much, much better now).

It sucks. I'd like to find a therapist who understands this stuff and is better at working with it. My therapist didn't seem to get what I was talking about. One of his suggestions was going to a one-week program out of state that sounded very... confrontational? Very much an "open up fast, brutal honesty, get everything out in the open to deal with it" - which clearly works well for some people. But, I was worried it would be incredibly retraumatizing for me... and when I tried to explain... he looked like he honestly had no idea what I was talking about.

I either suck at therapy, or suck at picking therapist. Bleh!