I am moving slowly through this list of best practices from the perspective of the therapist. I’m trying to add in my perspective as a client. Hopefully, it comes off as helpful and not confusing. I know that with the hundreds of conversations I had with my counselor there were several times that he understood…
One of the powerful things taught to me by my first counselor that my ‘symptoms’ of PTSD were actually life adaptions that worked for me at the time of trauma. Of course, the issue was that they were maladaptive for living a more settled life. In the list of best practices, one of the concepts…
Does not fit all. I studied PTSD for over 15 years now. I am noticing a growing trend towards one therapy should work for everyone. Hogwash. If I went to an eye doctor he would not give me the same prescription as the person before me. The one thing really awesome about my first counselor…
Too often another stumbling block to healing is the mind-set, “Fix me, please.” Too many clients walk into a counseling room expecting/pleading for the counselor to fix them. My counselor did not let me keep that delusion for very long. He informed me under no uncertain terms that I had a lot of work to…
My counselor helped me to understand that PTSD was my survival tool for extreme situations. The issue that arose was using extreme measures for every day living. He pointed out that wearing full body armor in war times is reasonable. However, when the bombing stops carrying around all that armor wore me down and tired…
I’ve mentioned before that before starting with a new counselor it is important to interview them just like any other person you would hire for a job. I decided not to go with one counselor after the second visit because it was so obvious by her actions that she knew very little about working with…
I entered counseling with the idea of getting marriage counseling. After years of raising kids I felt like there was this stranger in my house that I was married to. I was in for a real shock when after 2 months the counselor explained that my reactions to the homework assignments were not what he…
Communicating respect and hope is an on going challenge with an abuse survivor. https://www.blueknot.org.au/Workers-Practitioners/For-Health-Professionals/Resources-for-Health-Professionals/Best-Practice-Guidelines The problem is getting the client to know what it is. A long term abuse survivor only knows disrespect and cruelty. The whole respect thing is like a foreign language. Also a survivor can spot insincerity in a heart beat. If…
This question worked great for me. My therapist used it at the beginning of every session for 7 years. However, my sister was less than impressed by the same question. It sounded too much like our mother stating, “You’re doing the doing do it your way,” unfortunately we learned painfully in spite of the words…
I am always looking for more and better ways to cope with symptoms of PTSD/CPTSD. (Reminder, I was diagnosed with PTSD before Complex PTSD became an accepted term so I usually refer to PTSD.) I follow two PTSD groups on Facebook. I don’t remember which one shared this but it was an interesting list of…
PTSD - Accepting, Coping, Thriving 