[Cleo6]

Hi I met up with a new t last week. She said she uses sf cbt and focuses on the here and now and the past is in the past. I dont know how I feel about this. Theres a lot in my past I havent dealt with yet and never told anyone and I dont know if this is the right technique for me as I feel like I need to talk about it like I need to get it out of me. I started to with my last t but then she left.

Has anyone used this technique and found it beneficial. I'm doing it through a low cost scheme and not sure what other therapists there are that I can have instead

[sarahsweets]

is it called "solution focus cbt">?

[Cleo6]

Yes it is

[Omers]

I did once and it was very helpful at managing PTSD symptoms. It helped me get control over the flashbacks, body memories and intrusive thoughts. It proved in many ways to be a good foundation. I chose not to stop my healing journey there but to continue on to find additional levels of healing. Other than current T I would say that was my most helpful T experience.

[seeker33]

For me personally, cbt didn't work at all. In fact, it only upset me more. Maybe it was my Ts approach... I absolutely needed to talk about the past. Pretending nothing happened and I'm just stupid and irrational and having cognitive distortions would be devastating for me.
Perhaps it depends on your personality type. If you don't feel cbt would work for you, don't force yourself.
There are other modalities and techniques. For working here and now, try mindfulness, yoga, art and sport. These have been extremely helpful to me. Use therapy for processing the past and deeper work.

[ArtleyWilkins]

I'm not sure it was called what you call it, but my therapist did have a very behaviorally-focused approach that helped me immensely with my PTSD symptoms, particularly the dissociation and flashbacks and the severe panic attacks that I was having. It wasn't about not looking at the history; we definitely did. However, we only did so because there was a present reaction/response I was having difficulty with that was complicated by my history/PTSD. We would then explore that specific history event in a very focused and limited way so that I did not (hopefully) get overwhelmed by looking at it or become retraumatized. It was a slow process actually. It wouldn't have been a brief therapy for me with the extensive trauma background I was navigating. But ultimately, it was THE most effective approach for me that finally allowed me to put my history in its rightful place -- the past.

My concern is that if your therapist is presenting it as a brief therapy, that it probably won't be effective. My experience is that is was quite slow -- like approach the trauma with a fine brush rather than a shovel. Slow and steady and very, very carefully.

[Taylor27]

I found that approach made it worse then ever. The previous t i had was very cbt and did not allow me to go into my past and thats what i needed to do. I now have a t that gets it and still uses cbt and other therapies. She tells me little by little we will get it so my past wont interfere with my present life.

[Xynesthesia2]

I would have love to do anything solution-focused in my therapy. I think that my therapy wasn't very useful because it wasn't goal- and solutions-oriented enough. However, I don't have very significant childhood or early life trauma history. Most of my destructive experiences and behaviors are from adulthood, and mostly self-inflected. I personally do not believe that very old traumatic experiences can just be fixed with "solutions", analyzing and shifting thought patterns in the present.

[susannahsays]

I don't think I'd like to do solution-focused therapy as a treatment for trauma. That just seems counterintuitive to me.

If you feel like you need to talk about your past and get it out of you, then it seems to me that seeing a therapist who works with a modality that specifically excludes the past would be a bad idea. She has already told you that she will be working in a way that does not place value on the past, so you can expect her to redirect you should you try to steer the discussion to your past experiences. I think that would probably be very upsetting and potentially traumatic.

[ElectricManatee]

I wouldn't do trauma work with anybody who doesn't have at least a moderate amount of training and experience with trauma specifically. CBT of any type would just make things worse for me.

Is this person a student-therapist (that is, a therapist in training)? I only ask because they often staff low-cost clinics. If so, I would be extremely cautious about digging into old trauma with that person because it can be rough, scary work.

[Cleo6]

Thank you for your replies and sorry for the delayed reply. I saw her on fri and we are focusing on my anxiety around spending time with my ex. We talked briefly about the past. I didnt go into any depth as I dont feel safe enough yet to trust her. She seems nice but after a bad t experience I'm wary to begin with. She said theres good reason for my anxiety and we are going to discuss emotions more in 2 weeks time. I'm still not sure if this is the right therapy for me. I'm going to stick it out for a while and see how I get on. I dont know if I will stay with it after ex anxiety though as I know I need to focus on the past aswell. Shes a student t. I could ask to see another one but I dont know who else is available. The student t I saw before this one was amazing she helped me so much with trauma stuff