One of the major traumas in my life happened more than twenty years ago. It has been a relief to have somewhere to talk about it. There just aren’t that many places to talk about ‘my’ trauma, therapist exploitation.

What I’ve learned twenty-some years out is I am looking at it from a different perspective as a sixty-five year old than I was when I was in my early forties. My emotions aren’t so raw and I can be more objective about it now.

Talking about the trauma from the distance of time has allowed me to reflect and discover new questions I didn’t have time or the focus to consider before. He was arrested, why wasn’t he ever prosecuted? Why did he do this or that?

In the past, I’d look back on everything that happened as a giant confusing messy blob that was labeled, “therapist exploitation.” Finding answers to new questions has made the whole business clearer in my mind.

Perhaps another positive of continuing to talk about it is, the event has lost some of it’s power. It’s still hurtful and can be triggering but he doesn’t scare me anymore.

You are the best judge about whether you should continue talking about trauma. You control the pace..the doses...maybe you’re done with it? If not, the issues may pop up again and you can deal with it (or not) as needed.