http://www.trauma-pages.com/a/steele-2001.php

Quiet Mind posted this link in "Interesting Articles" and I found it quite interesting. The authors make a case for ts providing a safe person to attach to during treatment. There were several points that I thought they made well.

That people in treatment for trauma related MI (BPD, PTSD, DID) almost always have missed out on secure attachment as babies, and that treatment must address this.

That Ts need to be flexible yet firm with boundaries. Boundaries must be clearly explained and open for re-nogotiation. They should never be summarily tightened.


Ts should allow some between session contact but need to be attentive to not fostering damaging enmeshment or dependence.

Clients need to be gently encouraged to develop support outside the therapeutic relationship with t understanding how difficult this is and being patient about it.

That ts need to truly care for clients.

There's more, its a long article. But it really illuminated much of my journey. Especially the fact that for whatever reason I am having an anxiety relapse. It normalizes that by saying that while there are phases of treatment, recovery is not linear and will include cycling back to earlier phases.