My therapist wasn't specifically a trauma therapist, but his approach was the only one that truly worked for me.

I do think what works will vary from client to client.

My therapist once said that there used to be the belief that to heal from trauma, they had to get the client to talk through every bit of the trauma, often over and over again. But what they found is that this approach often left clients retraumatized. He refused to work that way.

His approach was to stay in the present as much as possible. We have to live in the present, so staying focused on how to be healthy in the present was the aim.

That didn't mean we didn't discuss the past. We did - quite a bit actually - but always and only with a very specific purpose (generally related to something, some reaction, some thought, etc., in my present that was tied to my past), and the dives were only as deep as necessary and as short as possible.

It took longer perhaps, but I do think it was less traumatizing, and in the end, I can honestly say I have worked past my traumas. I rarely am aware of any PTSD symptoms anymore - I probably don't hold that diagnosis anymore to be quite honest - at least, the issues are so rare and mild enough that they aren't a problem I can't deal with easily on my own. I am rarely depressed; if I feel depressed, it is situational, and again, very short-lived and I can work through it on my own in a matter of a few hours or days at the most - not enough to be classified as a clinical depression. My anxiety is pretty much gone.

By staying focused on figuring out how to keep my present healthy and get to a place where my past wasn't constantly intruding on my present, I guess I acquired healthy coping skills and an understanding of how to keep my past in the past. A great deal of how he approached things was cognitive which clicked with my tendency to need to intellectually understand what is going on inside. Whatever he did with me, it worked. It was a slow process, but the results have been lasting.