Trauma work in CBT

Ok...so what should I expect? I had my third session with my new T today, and we actually scheduled two sessions for next week, and will be doing "trauma work." As in what, talking about old traumatic experiences? This CBT is very new to me....I'm still learning. She wants to work on some grounding techniques first, and then start in on trauma work.

For CBT, is the 4th session a good time to start? I'm used to psychodynamic, so this is new to me... she's basically got a lot of my history now, plus current issues, she writes a LOT of notes (unlike T1 who doesn't write notes at all, but has an awesome memory, so I don't question it).

I don't know how I feel about this therapist/therapy yet... I cried today....ugh. I honestly thought it would take me a long time to cry with her, but, third session sure isn't a long time!

We did great trauma work with my behavioral therapist. I don't really have a point of comparison to any other form of therapy, but I can say it was deep, intense, and very insightful work.

So often CBT gets described as short-term, surface-level, never dealing with the past, but that was not my experience at all; in fact, it was exactly the opposite. We always framed the work on the trauma/history, though, in terms of the present. When we looked into the past, it was always for a very specific purpose which I think helped to keep it from just being an exercise in exploring just for exploring sake.

Is she purely CBT or a mixture? Does it flow well or is it constant trying to reframe your thoughts? Do you like her and feel comfortable?

I think she's purely CBT. Things are flowing well, but our sessions so far have been "getting to know you" type sessions....guess we start on the work next week. She loved her worksheets...I come home with one every session so far.

I like her just fine, and she's comfortable to talk to. I want to give it some time to see if I think this will be helpful for me, or move on. When I met my first T, I felt like I could get attached to her pretty quickly, and I did. I don't feel that at ALL with CBT T. Aside from working on my homework, I don't think of her at all between sessions really.... I think I would like to try to make it stay this way.

I think that perhaps you aren't clear on what "trauma work" is. Trauma work isn't just getting into the details of what happened to you. Its a lot more than that. I suggest that you ask your T what she means by "trauma work" as she is the only one who can give you the answer you're looking for. If you aren't comfortable with her response, let her know. She may discuss moving slower with you so that things are at a pace that you're ok with.

Does your T mean she is doing "Trauma Focused CBT"?

It's offered in my country for abuse survivors who are children, seems to be effective.