Not making progress in therapy

[safetyinnumbers]

I've been in regular trauma informed therapy for a year now. At first I felt that I was making progress and I left appointments with a feeling of having achieved something most of the time. The last couple of months I feel that I've plateaued. The last bad patch really rocked me and I felt the worst that I have felt in a very long time.
I want to keep getting better. I want to deal with my past and not just when it's currently affecting me negatively, but work away at it constantly.
I told my therapist how I am feeling.
Is it normal to plateau?

[Deep Blue]

Hey safety
I have been in therapy for almost 3 years for my cptsd.  I notice I go in phases for sure.  Sometimes I'm doing well and it's easy to picture an easier life.  Others times, when I'm in an EF or during certain anniversaries I feel so helpless and hopeless.  I have plateaued in therapy over time as well. I wouldn't worry about it much.  Plateauing is a phase as well.

Hang in there as best you can.  You are not alone in this.

[sanmagic7]

i'm glad you told your t about this.  hopefully, you'll get some meaningful insight from them.   

i get what you mean about not just wanting to be in therapy to get along from day to day.  it sounds like something got stuck in the therapeutic process.  there could be a number of reasons for that, but not being there or knowing details, i can't even guess what that might be.

love and hugs, safety.  i hope this gets resolved quickly for you.

[woodsgnome]

I've felt pulled in many directions during my ride through therapy. What you're feeling is not totally unique and not alarming, but there are many reasons it might be happening.

Something that's frustrated me has been plateau-like 'non-progress' times when I too felt like I was traveling in reverse, or at a standstill. This can hurt and make me wonder if something's wrong, until I remember that it's okay not to always expect the same rate of progress.

Fortunately, I have a therapist who understands this well, and who is extremely patient. She knows that therapy can seem like being set down cold in a foreign country and it'll take time to learn the new ways. I'm learning likewise to suspend the assumption that I'll always feel like I'm progressing. But I've experienced enough surprises, even when it hasn't seemed like progress, to learn to tamp down the inclination to experience therapy as a constant upward journey. Ideally it would be, but a bit above the reality, I think.

In that sense therapy seems to be more art form than exact science--the outcome might require an alarming bit of time to see results. Individuals that we are, there's also no consistency to how this will happen.

[safetyinnumbers]

I'm worried that I'm going to lose progress or not cope by myself when my therapist is away on 6wks leave soon.
What do people do when their therapist is away?

[woodsgnome]

Safetyinnumbers wondered: "What do people do when their therapist is away?"

This has happened a few times with me. What I try in the interim is to read, review online materials (posts, links, podcasts, etc.) and other therapy-related activities (which I also did before). Ideally, therapy should be just one--albeit important--step in working towards healing. It's hard to break off, though, especially when one sense progress is being made.

My t also gave me an area 'crisis' line which I've had to tap into a couple of times when desperate. Perhaps your t might know of one? So it's best to inquire of the t for any suggestions besides what I've mentioned. I hope you can work this out to feel comfortable in the interim.