What does your T do?

zoiecat · Jan 23, 2019 at 05:15 PM

I am just curious. What does your T do to treat your DID?

I started seeing a trauma specialist a little over 2 years ago for side effects from a car accident. I knew I had tons of trauma from childhood but had no idea of the full extent. I was diagnosed with DID about 3 to 4 months later.

My T basically does EMDR for trauma in addition to DBT and CBT. He pushes a lot of mindfulness as well. I go to DBT group run by an acquaintance of T and I see T 2 times a week. Occasionally he will let me just talk about things when I am having a reallt hard time but that is rare on his part. He is very goal and progress oriented so there usually has to be one of the main 3 modalities in use for the majority of each session.

Also, especially in the beginning he would teach me how to communicate and work on cooperation between parts.

What does your T do?

Betty_Banana · Jan 23, 2019 at 06:52 PM

Quote:

Occasionally he will let me just talk about things when I am having a reallt hard time but that is rare on his part

You should be able to talk about whatever you want whenever you want,you are the one paying him for his services.

My therapist went with the flow,with whatever he was presented with and that was his focus.

Are you ok with the way your T does things?

zoiecat · Jan 23, 2019 at 08:12 PM

We have our moments where he irritates me. He is starting to allow me to vent more when I need to to avoid me going further down the rabbit hole. I get his point. He wants me to get better and I don't want to be in therapy forever.

I was just wondering what other techniques T use for DID. My T is always willing to speak to whoever presents but I know he would prefer it nit happen during EMDR because that means we gave stopped processing. One of my young parts will start doing her own EMDR soon with my support. That should be interesting.

Amyjay · Jan 23, 2019 at 10:01 PM

My T is similar in that she does EMDR. We usually do about half and half, with me talking about whatever current issue I have for half of the session, and then her directing our work preparing for trauma processing the other part of the time. I am in a hurry to get to the trauma processing proper but she keeps talking about that coming "later". I have to develop my knowledge of the system, communication with the alters and regulation skills first. Apparently.

kbonnieboo · Jan 24, 2019 at 05:32 PM

Mine is just like zoecat's. I really like him.

Rive1976 · Jan 24, 2019 at 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amyjay

My T is similar in that she does EMDR. We usually do about half and half, with me talking about whatever current issue I have for half of the session, and then her directing our work preparing for trauma processing the other part of the time. I am in a hurry to get to the trauma processing proper but she keeps talking about that coming "later". I have to develop my knowledge of the system, communication with the alters and regulation skills first. Apparently.

How does she prepare for trauma processing? You mean the whole scale like how much does this memory bother you and what feelings come up?

Amyjay · Jan 24, 2019 at 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dnester

How does she prepare for trauma processing? You mean the whole scale like how much does this memory bother you and what feelings come up?

No, we are nowhere near that yet. She said targeting specific memories to process will come much, much later.
Before we can start processing trauma we have to develop awareness of the system, communication between alters, self regulation skills and more. The protocols for using EMDR with dissociative clients are different to normal EMDR and need a lot of groundwork first. At the moment we only use EMDR for installing gains in internal communication, developing compassion between alters, reorienting to the present and things like that.

A clinician should ONLY use EMDR with a dissociative client if they have had the extra training for it.

zoiecat · Jan 25, 2019 at 02:54 AM

My T always says it is very easy to go too fast with DID but hard to go too slow. I am glad that we have been working on a college memory for the past year or so with EMDR. There is just so much to cover and if I had to wait for full communication and cooperation from all of my parts we would be at it forever. As it is now I still think we will be doing this forever.

Amyjay · Jan 25, 2019 at 03:14 AM

We will never get there if we have to wait for full knowledge, cooperation and communication with every alter either. I don't think she means that (I hope not!). But she says we need much more than what we currently have before we start processing trauma so that we can remain safe. I asked her when we will be able to start trauma processing a couple weeks ago and she responded that that is a way away yet, we have lots of things to work on first.

I am concerned that this is going to take a very, very long time. I would rather be done with it more quickly.

zoiecat · Jan 25, 2019 at 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amyjay

We will never get there if we have to wait for full knowledge, cooperation and communication with every alter either. I don't think she means that (I hope not!). But she says we need much more than what we currently have before we start processing trauma so that we can remain safe. I asked her when we will be able to start trauma processing a couple weeks ago and she responded that that is a way away yet, we have lots of things to work on first.

I am concerned that this is going to take a very, very long time. I would rather be done with it more quickly.

Good Luck to you. Yes, I would be quite anxious. Luckily for me, we started processing the accident shortly after I started. We never did complete the accident doing EMDR because it kept leading back to childhood stuff. One thing led to another and now I just want to complete one set of traumas from college. Childhood stuff is going to be a nightmare. I can't believe we have been working more than a year on the college issues. Unfortunately that is starting to lead back to childhood too. I hate it all.

I was hoping someone had other suggestions to get through all of this without EMDR which for me is taking FOREVER.

kbonnieboo · Jan 25, 2019 at 09:38 PM

Everytime we get close to trauma processing I destabilize and we back up. I feel like we'll never move forward, but I get that he's protecting me from flooding and full destabalization.

possum220 · Jan 25, 2019 at 09:53 PM

My T has been doing Schema Therapy with me. Least now I have a bit more clarity about the roles of my parts. Whatever therapy any of us do is going to take time... lots of it.

Jan 26, 2019 at 12:03 AM

She talks to all of us. she lets every one of us talk about our trauma and process with it. she has built a relationship with each of us.

Jan 26, 2019 at 01:59 AM

We tried EMDR for a short time. In us it caused rapid switching. Alters became confused & upset. Too many alters all upset at same time...Not good. As T started working on an incident of abuse with one alter others who related came forward, connected. We did not need to examine every individual incident. But more their reactions. Now we are co-conscious & trying to work at daily functioning & support as a team. Every family is different. For us EMDR caused more chaos then it solved

Amyjay · Jan 26, 2019 at 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cavaliers

We tried EMDR for a short time. In us it caused rapid switching. Alters became confused & upset. Too many alters all upset at same time...Not good. As T started working on an incident of abuse with one alter others who related came forward, connected. We did not need to examine every individual incident. But more their reactions. Now we are co-conscious & trying to work at daily functioning & support as a team. Every family is different. For us EMDR caused more chaos then it solved

That's why my T won't do memory processing with me. Some people have talked about brain spotting. I'd be interested in learning more about that too.

zoiecat · Jan 26, 2019 at 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cavaliers

We tried EMDR for a short time. In us it caused rapid switching. Alters became confused & upset. Too many alters all upset at same time...Not good. As T started working on an incident of abuse with one alter others who related came forward, connected. We did not need to examine every individual incident. But more their reactions. Now we are co-conscious & trying to work at daily functioning & support as a team. Every family is different. For us EMDR caused more chaos then it solved

Just curious. Do you just talk each session? I guess my T is so focused on sills and goals that I have a hard time imagining what it would be like to just talk each session.

susannahsays · Jan 26, 2019 at 04:06 PM

Neurofeedback can be helpful. Seems like over time, tolerance for thinking about traumas grew. Was very gradual, but that's the only thing it could have been.

kecanoe · Jan 26, 2019 at 08:36 PM

T3 does brainspotting with me. I like it a lot; but it is slow. It is very focused where EMDR can cause larger shifts. For me, EMDR was good for some stuff but not everything.
And bad news about the length of treatment. T3 tells me that the first several years are spent stabilizing and connecting, and that 10 years is common.

Neither of my Ts (nor the ones I have seen in the past) structure the sessions. They pretty much leave it up to me, although T3 will sometimes say that she thinks we should address something in the next session and then leaves it up to me if we do.

Amyjay · Jan 26, 2019 at 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kecanoe

And bad news about the length of treatment. T3 tells me that the first several years are spent stabilizing and connecting, and that 10 years is common.

I just really don't want it to take that long.

I'd love to know more about the brainspotting process if you are able to share.

zoiecat · Jan 27, 2019 at 09:51 AM

I have also considered brainspotting and found someone who would do it but I would like to know more as well. My T knows I don't want to be in therapy forever. Although he is very goal oriented and won't let me just ramble on about what is bothering me that day and makes it quite clear that it is his ethical duty to refer me if I have not made any progress thoughout the year; when I confront him and push him to give me a time frame he always says more than five and less than ten. Since it has already been 2 years and we have barely broken the surface, I know this means more like 10. That really scares me. I am not getting any younger. It just seems so daunting and hopeless, but I do see now where my past traumas have controlled and ruined every aspect of my life so far and I need to make some changes if I want to experience any happiness before I die.

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kbonnieboo Junior Member Member Since Dec 2018 Location: US Posts: 21 5	Jan 24, 2019 at 05:32 PM #5 Mine is just like zoecat's. I really like him.
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zoiecat Grand Member Member Since Apr 2017 Location: USA Posts: 916 7 409 hugs given	Jan 25, 2019 at 02:54 AM #8 My T always says it is very easy to go too fast with DID but hard to go too slow. I am glad that we have been working on a college memory for the past year or so with EMDR. There is just so much to cover and if I had to wait for full communication and cooperation from all of my parts we would be at it forever. As it is now I still think we will be doing this forever.
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kbonnieboo Junior Member Member Since Dec 2018 Location: US Posts: 21 5	Jan 25, 2019 at 09:38 PM #11 Everytime we get close to trauma processing I destabilize and we back up. I feel like we'll never move forward, but I get that he's protecting me from flooding and full destabalization.
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possum220 Legendary Member Since Jan 2009 Location: Uppa Gumtree West Posts: 19,397 (SuperPoster!) 15 7,983 hugs given	Jan 25, 2019 at 09:53 PM #12 My T has been doing Schema Therapy with me. Least now I have a bit more clarity about the roles of my parts. Whatever therapy any of us do is going to take time... lots of it.
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Anonymous47147 Guest Posts: n/a	Jan 26, 2019 at 12:03 AM #13 She talks to all of us. she lets every one of us talk about our trauma and process with it. she has built a relationship with each of us.
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susannahsays Grand Magnate Member Since Jun 2018 Location: Somewhere Posts: 3,355 5 1 hugs given	Jan 26, 2019 at 04:06 PM #17 Neurofeedback can be helpful. Seems like over time, tolerance for thinking about traumas grew. Was very gradual, but that's the only thing it could have been.
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