Bad therapy?

[Lonewolf15]

Looking to hear other people's experience in working with a therapist inexperienced in complex ptsd. Began my road down therapy work 3 months ago. At the time I was trying to address some anxiety issues that I couldn't shake. Found a therapist through an online referral board. Long story short, after 3 initial sessions utilizing EMDR, I remembered severe early childhood trauma. At the same time, I discovered that I had been dissociating across the spectrum.

Fast forward to last week. I experienced a PTSD crisis that involved nightmares and flashbacks. My therapist and I setup daily appointments to try to stabilize the situation, but after each session I felt worse than I did when I went in. When I initially reached out to her for help, it was on a Friday and she encouraged me to "dissociate" anyway I could until we could meet on the following Monday.  This included the use of alcohol, which she encouraged.

There's more to this story I think and do not planning on seeing this therapist again. Has anyone else experienced something similar in working through therapy?

[no_more_fear]

I read through your post twice and although I feel really unsure giving my opinion on the matter as I'm not qualified, I'll try anyway and hopefully be of some help.

I personally feel it was good of your therapist to schedule daily meetings to help you through a bad time and I know you said you found that you were feeling worse after it, but that can happen sometimes. It's happening with me right now. What I'm finding SO difficult is working out if that means the therapist isn't a good fit. Between the fact that I get overly attached to people anyway, which I've done with my T, and my inability to tell if something isn't working for me, I can't decide to continue with mine or not.

As far as encouraging you to drink, my initial feeling is that should never be encouraged, but it depends on how much you would be drinking, I suppose. I realise your post is dated a number of days ago, so I was wondering, how did you end up getting through that weekend? I hope you were and are OK. 

[DaisyMae]

LoneWolf15,

I am not qualified either, but my opinion is Do Not Go See This Therapist again. Sounds like an unethical one to me.  EMDR is extremely triggering and not a good idea especially early in treatment for someone who has suffered repeated abuse and trauma over a long period.  The way it was explained to me is that it is really a tool used for PTSD (single events) to help people manage them.  I have had 2 counselors and neither liked EMDR as an option in therapy.  CBT, DBT, and Mindfulness, even Solution Based Focused (SBFT) therapies are preferable to look for in a T in my experience over the last 2 yrs.  A T should never be promoting that you drink alcohol in an effort to stabilize and tell you to disassociate anyway that you could.  My T does not like that I drink to calm myself down or to sleep and would never recommend that I drink to deal with anything.  I might be an alcoholic since I can't seem to stop doing it.  Good luck in your search and hope your next one is a good one!

DM

[SadieMist]

I see that this post was in June so I hope that you found a therapist that is right for you.

Re: the whole EMDR thing.  It is a tool, kinda like a scalpel, that is only as good as the person using it.  RE: my own experience with EMDR... I've done EMDR 4X and found 3/4 sessions to be incredibly helpful.  I found staying grounded essentially impossible during my first EMDR session.  I found the website below, shared it with my current therapist and we headed to the barn for equine assisted EMDR.  It was night and day difference in the results.  Something about the equine environment helped to keep me grounded.   I was able to do all other sessions in office.  Also helpful to me was doing longer two-hour sessions.  It was impossible to complete/ get to where I needed to be in a regular 45min-1hour session.  Your supposed to feel relief/ lighter after EMDR, not more triggered.

http://www.dragonflyinternationaltherapy.com/equineassist.html

I know that equine-assisted EMDR is not for everyone but hope that it is helpful to someone.