[Differentlywired]

I have been seeing T for 10 months now. We have a very good client-therapist relationship.

We have been talking about the PTSD symptoms for a while and a couple of months ago I decided to go to my GP and ask them to refer me to a Pdoc to get the diagnosis formalised.
My T was happy that I had made the decision and done something positive. (She called it brave but I don't think it is.)

The more we talked about the assessment with the Pdoc approaching she was talking about EMDR. She felt it may be worth trying and that as I was going for an NHS diagnosis that they might offer it for free but she had found a private EMDR specialist (my T is private practice) incase they didn't. The only problem is EMDR is apparently 'hit and miss' with those on the autism spectrum (like me), so she wasn't sure if it would work well for me.

Then I had the letter to say who my appointment was with and she seemed rather happy. She said she had spoken to him before and he recommends EMDR and trauma focused CBT combined- plus for some patients he also treats with medication.

Now it is a battle of heart vs logic.

I probably won't be able to do EMDR, CBT & see T.

Logic says- T has already said that she wants me to have the right help and says she feels protective of me and she shows obvious care... That this is probably the best thing for me as she isn't trained in EMDR.

Heart feels- rejection. We have discussed me taking up the offer of EMDR and CBT if offered but we never talked about what would happen to our sessions and to be honest I was too scared to ask.

Now it is even more real as 2 days ago I had the assessment and was diagnosed with PTSD and put on the list for EMDR and CBT and started on Sertraline.

Now I am going to have to have the conversation with T (who I don't have a session with until next Friday because of schools breaking up) about what happens now.

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[ruh roh]

If you aren't able to see your therapist while doing EMDR and CBT, can you resume with her after those other therapies have finished, since they're short term?

Originally Posted by ruh roh

If you aren't able to see your therapist while doing EMDR and CBT, can you resume with her after those other therapies have finished, since they're short term?

I agree - Surely you will be able to resume when the course is finished? Or how about keeping once a month contact sessions with your T, so that when the NHS stuff finishes theres not really been a gap?

[Differentlywired]

Originally Posted by ruh roh

If you aren't able to see your therapist while doing EMDR and CBT, can you resume with her after those other therapies have finished, since they're short term?

That might be what happens.

That, or I have been thinking that as I don't have a support network or friends as I find this difficult due to my autism- that we may be able to continue, but only to have chats about day to day life stuff nothing to do with the EMDR and trauma stuff.
Like paying to have a friend to chat to about things. (I know she isn't my friend- we have very clear boundries and most of them are mine)

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[ruh roh]

That's a good point. She can see you for other things.

[skeksi]

Yeah, when my T proposed EMDR he said we would stop our sessions for it but could resume after it concluded.

My T once told me about him referring a client who needed help with a particular type of trauma but still kept seeing her for other therapy issues. So some Ts will do that. I can totally understand the fear to ask.

[Out There]

I can understand your feelings. My regular T is private and I also work sometimes with a private EMDR T. The jury seems to be out a little on continuing to see your regular T while having EMDR , sometimes its recommended not to as its thought it " swings against " the stuff EMDR brings up , on the other hand people feel nervous about feeling they're losing their regular , trusted support and what will this EMDR / trauma work be like ( and of course you don't know until you try it ). I do continue to see regular T during EMDR but we keep it more of a " well being therapy " and don't delve into the stuff coming up and that's supportive and works well.

[kecanoe]

I live in the USA so it may be different for you, but I continue to see T1 while seeing others for EMDR and Brain Spotting. It took a lot of talking with T2 and T3 to get them to be ok with me seeing T1 at the same time, but I prevailed