Hi greenfeather, welcome back to the forums. Well, therapy is about reviewing one's life to learn how that individual's history may be influencing the way they struggle and have a problem navigating certain life circumstances. For example, a child that struggled to feel safe when alone, or who was punished too much by being forced to be alone may have a deep uncomfortable feeling about being alone, like it's something bad or a punishment. This feeling tends to stay with a person long after they grew out of that period and may not even realize that when they happen to be alone, they feel this same feeling like it's punishment. Similarly, if a child experiences some kind of illness where they are pulled away from all their friends and school and are alone, that can be something they unknowingly remember feeling whenever they don't get to be with their friends and engaging. They can start feeling how it felt when they were sick and it kept them from being with their friends but not even realize it consciously.

The individual may experience the reverse where they only feel safe when they isolate and are alone. This could have developed from their parents constantly fighting or even an older sibling threatening them and they only felt safe alone in their room.

Therapy isn't meant to make a person feel uncomfortable, instead it's meant to find the root of where an individual may have developed their challenge in the first place so they may become more aware so they can begin to learn ways to help themselves learn how to navigate now more aware where this challenge came from that they did not realize.

A therapist MAY actually trigger a patient unknowingly too. It could create a feeling that comes forward where a child feels like a parent would not listen to them and after an attempt to ask for help they walked away feeling worse instead of feeling comforted and understood or helped. The therapist that kept questioning if you were taking drugs was not a good match for you, you needed a presence that believed you and instead focused on the problems that you had tried to medicate away because you could not manage them and probably did not even understand why you have these challenges. It's incredible the things a person may hang onto that can cause them distress that they don't even realize that comes from their childhood.