Retraumatizing clients

The implicit message sent in this post is one of invalidating people's feelings and experiences.

I agree.

I agree with Anastasia's post and, like many times before, I really need to contain myself not to say something more explicitly critical about Mouse's post. Of course she won't see it as she has me (and many others) on ignore, conveniently. I am not sure who is acting out here? In any case, if for nothing else, perhaps it is similar to what unprofessional, condescending and traumatizing therapists can do, how they act out on and judge clients for not understanding their 1st rate "art"?

Yes lets all sink to the lowest common denominator. No other voices should be heard.

No one type of therapy fits everyone. There is no perfect universal type of therapy. Exhibiting smug superiority about one's chosen type of therapy and insulting those who engage in therapy differently, is more reflective of the person exhibiting said smugness than it is a sign the therapy is superior.

Thank you Anne, this post is very helpful. There was an assumption on my part that my t knew what was happening and like you said it is connected to CSA. I am so used to hiding my feelings that I don’t like it when people see me or notice me, I would be invisible if I could.
This time I couldn’t hide it because my teeth were chattering and I was visibly shaking all over. My t said that I was shaken to the core, which fitted. I am still trying to unfreeze and be able to talk when this happens. T asks what she can do and how she can support me but I still don’t know. I guess it will take time to find out what I need her to do. I haven’t been supported much in my life yet and am fiercely independent so I struggle with letting others in.
Thank you for your post

It’s very interesting that you are suspicious of these posts yet you always reply to my post and even though I specifically asked for No judgement about my therapy- here it is again.
Well I am not taking the bait this time. You have you opinions, I have mine. Thank you but no thanks.

Exactly, thank you for verbalising what I was feeling

I don’t agree with this. Every voice should be heard but being disrespectful and judgemental is not going to get people to listen

I think a distinction should be made between the therapist retraumatizing someone, and the situation retraumatizing someone. If a T, through incompetence or harmful intent, traumatizes you, that's on them. If you get retraumatized because of normal (trauma) therapy, that she couldn't know not to do or couldn't prevent, that's not on the therapist. In that case the situation was retraumatizing, not the T.

A few pages back I described a situation with my pdoc that was definitely retraumatizing. However, he didn't do anything he shouldn't in general. I know his intent was to keep me out of the locked ward. HE didn't retraumatize me.

I personally think that the concept of "re-traumatizing" tends to be overused in relation to therapy. When we get angry at disrespectful, condescending and irresponsible therapist behavior (or just behavior in general), it is meant to have some deeper meaning about our past, declared as acting out, and sometimes the T even says it's their skill to bring it out for the purpose of making the client more aware and subsequent healing. I really think that often it is nothing else but the anatomy of plain old abuse occurring in the moment, repeated by the T, and the client will become sensitized to it. It can perfectly be created in therapy. Also, I believe that anyone beyond, say, age 30 has encountered lots of disrespectful, manipulative people in our lives, it is just part of human nature and reacting to it strongly does not necessarily mean that we dislike it because our parents or whoever in our childhood had wronged us and we have "issues" - it is healthy and normal to feel irritated by unfairness. Probably more than overlooking, tolerating and forgiving all kinds of BS. I guess this is, at least in part, why therapists often encourage expressing anger with them - theoretically. The problem is that many are unable to take it, let alone use it constructively for the client. Instead, they often twist and turn it against the client and use it for self-gratification, often the more forgiving the client the more manipulatively. How on Earth wouldn't that be traumatic, it does not require deeper meaning and history to be that way, but if that is tied to it, it is even more harmful. So why do Ts do it? Well, why do people do it, especially in powerful positions? I think it's just the same kind of human nature and therapists are not exempt by any means.

This makes so much sense to me. Like Freud said sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and abuse is abuse, doesn’t matter who is doing it.
People tend to think therapists are superhuman and don’t make mistakes, they do, all the time. I used to idealise my t but I clearly see she doesn’t know what to do and she will tell me that and ask me what I need.

I think that what I was talking about retraumatised me, not t or the situation. It was something very deep and painful.

I was recently re-victimized by a therapist and I experienced a full re-traumatization. It almost ended my life.

It is absolutely disturbing to think about how common this is. Therapy can be very dangerous. It is important to know about these things and recognize the signs of ineffective and potentially hazardous therapy.

For me, re-traumatization includes nightmares, panic attacks, extremely annoying and persistent somatic symptoms that will not go away; pain, tense muscles, shaking, sweating, sore body, weakness, dizziness, shortness of breath, etc. I have relentless intrusive memories that simply will not stop. These of course bring about further body reactions and further re-traumatize me. I cannot sleep, I dissociate and cannot concentrate on what I am doing. I want to hide under blankets and cuddle teddy bears. I want to escape the body - like I cannot escape the living nightmare! I constantly ruminate about what people did and said, over and over and over; trying to process it. I feel angry enough to punch my walls. I feel angry enough to expose the systemic issues in healthcare and in mental health treatment. I am basically a wreck and I would go to another therapist but I have been re-traumatized and re-victimized too many times to feel safe!

Thanks,
HD7970ghz

Triggered, dysregulated, traumatized.. i see these as semantic distinctions.

I experienced a bunch of small and medium traumas in therapy.

Main point to me is that if something increases physical or psychological distress, it should be seen as harmful, unless there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And since no therapist can provide such evidence, nor apply meaningful controls, seems to me this kind of situation = harm the client, hope they claw their way out of it.

ps: I notice in therapy it's always "retraumatizing", as if the experience cannot be traumatic in its own right, without reference to something in the past. This is part of the transference construct that allows therapists to cause harm and then weasel out of it.

For me personally, I’ve not been retraumatized but I’ve been triggered, several times. Just last week I was doing this breathing exercise over a large ball and she gently went to put her finger on chin to open my mouth a little wider and as she raised her hand I immediately lifted my hand to stop her.. it happened just like that. It’s not the first time we’ve done this breathing exercise but I still have some discomfort with touch due to earlier experiences. She is aware of this so I don’t feel too awkward about it.