Quote:
Originally Posted by smileygal
This is one of the reasons why I think traditional talk therapy and the once a week 50 minute formate is completely flawed for many people. By the very nature of the therapy relationship and for many with childhood trauma it brings up feelings of all these unmet needs. Feelings we had supressed or blocked out with various behaviours and coping strategies because they were too difficult to deal with the first time around. It opens pandoras box to reexperience them all and hopes that they can be transmuted just by 'talking' about them once a week and then leaves you there saying 'Well I'm just your therapist I can't fulfil those needs you need to learn to do that on your own'. We couldn't do that the first time hence why we developed all these maladaptive coping strategies.
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Which is why my T doesn't subscribe to the ones a week 50 min format. She does do the hour format, and meets with people as many times a week as she feels is appropriate and agreed upon. As well as allowing for outside contact for those she feels would be helpful. My T says yes as much as she feels is appropriate with me. She doesn't say yes all the time and she rarely offers things - I have to ask for pretty much anything/everything. Currently we have daily contact - email or session. She recently took a week off and didn't mention anything about our emails - I had to ask her about them.
I have found that talking about things - events, feelings... whatevers does seem to change them. Often it's not a one and done thing, I seem to need to talk about them from several different places/parts depending on the event/impact and so on. And sometimes, for me, it's been about sitting with the grieving part, without talking about it.
Has it been retraumatizing?? at times I think it has felt that way when in the middle of the mess. I think seeing her multiple times a week has helped move through things in a way that kept it from becoming retraumatizing. (my opinion on how things have felt for me)