1. I started three years ago (this month) and I had no idea what to anticipate. I thought the expectation was a few months to help with the anxiety and then send me on my way. Well. Therapy has ended up being like exploratory surgery for me - and finding a ton to deal with while also changing a lot about my life. I personally expect I will remain in therapy and in this particular therapeutic relationship for some time yet.

2. From an objective perspective, at this point I may look "worse", but therapy for me has been necessary through a lot of the changes I've made in my life (divorce, school, etc).

3. I think this is highly individual. I don't think you can measure it in objective numbers for every person. If my marriage had been good, I think I would have expected to see improvement a lot sooner. But it wasn't good and I suffered additional trauma (rape) after entering therapy.

4. Again, I think this is highly individual. Therapy for me has been a lifeline and aid in getting through a lot of things I have wanted and needed to do for a long time. So objectively there isn't a lot of symptom improvement (though I have learned a lot), but I am in the process (long, long process) of making a lot of changes and improvement in my overall life that I hope will pay off. It's been about changing the entire course of my life, and I've learned I can't put time limit on that (although I want to!)

If I was seeing the same person all the time with no improvement and my life was "normal" and without signifiant trauma, I would question either the benefit of the therapy or the place of my life. I do think this is different for significant trauma, especially complex childhood trauma. It is so hard to trust and I don't think there is a straight line that you can draw to recovery. It took me three months before I even began talking to my therapist (like I went in week after week and just sat there and said nothing).