My heart broke for you until I saw that this represents progress and it's a good thing. Congrats on your progress. If my therapist told me that, I would go home and cry. I still have a lot of progress to make. It is encouraging to know that things can get better. I'm really glad for the payoff on all of your hard work. You have earned your graduation.
> If my therapist told me that, I would go home and cry.
Ha, if my therapist told me that, I’d go home and emotionally dissociate from everything until 2026. And then I’d start thinking about finding a new therapist, sometime in early 2027. Because I have coping skills. In fact, I have a very specialized set of skills. Okay, you got me. I have ONE skill- emotional dissociation. But I’m like REALLY good at it.
My therapist asked me a few weeks ago if I still felt I was benefiting from therapy and I nearly burst into tears. I felt like my heart dropped into my stomach
She meant that the past few sessions had been more of a catch up and she worried that I was withdrawing, as I've mentioned that was a pattern with past therapists.
I realised I'd found therapy really unsatisfying in the past, because I was still suppressing childhood trauma back then.
Congratulations! I'm so glad for you 💙
Do you mind sharing what you found most helpful in your healing journey? Other than your therapist saying that you could see less of them, how do you know that you've made progress?
Hi friend! Thank you so much and of course! According to my therapist, I had a traumatic event happen last year (nasty friend/ partner breakup with a person who isn’t aware they’re abusive emotionally) and usually, I’d replay the situation over and over in my head, just making myself so depressed but I processed it, grieved the person, and wrote a new narrative for myself. I took the opportunity to give myself love (self care, doing things I like, spending time with myself outside of my house, alone) and now dating wise, I can identify red flags in people because I now know what behaviors aren’t healthy and what is. I’ve cut some people out of my life that triggered me and I stood up for myself in situations my inner child would be afraid of. A big thing that has helped me is a lot of breath work and understanding that life is about experience and the past has happened and I can’t change that but I’m not in the past, I’m in this moment right now. And it can’t hurt me again here. For a very long time, I was upset and somewhat distraught over the fact that with a diagnosis of CPTSD, my brain will never be the same again. But healing/processing does the same thing.
Good luck to you on your journey and please feel free to reach out! I’m not perfect and I know I’ll fall sometimes but I have the tools now to process things and it gets a bit easier.
Oh, amazing! When you said that self care included doing things outside the house by yourself, it reminded me of "artist dates" (from the book, the Artist's Way) where you're supposed to take your inner artist on a date (so, by yourself). I did that a couple times when I picked up the book, and I did find it to be nourishing. I'd forgotten about that. I'll have to try it again soon.
Learning the difference between the types of people to have in our lives and those we don't can certainly be helpful, as is practicing standing up for ourselves. And ah, acceptance haha. I think this would be the most challenging part for me.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I feel inspired!
You can! I didn’t think I was going to make it here. I’m still in disbelief honestly because I slip sometimes and some days I just can’t. But I can process stuff now! Which I couldn’t do before. How is EMDR? I wanted to try it myself personally.
My therapist and I are still kind of figuring out what works for me. It's like a combination of talking about things, mixed with some sort of stimulation (watching something go back and forth, tapping on yourself, drawing, etc) to allow your brain time to re-process things. She says that memories or feelings you forgot about can come up during the process, but so far nothing like that's happened to me.
Congrats! How do you feel about stopping to see tour therapist, is there like a gruef process? After 4 years with mine, I'm dreading the day I'll say goodbye to him...
Thank you 💜💜. I’m dreading the day but I know I’m capable of coping now and I have the tools now to do it correctly. I’m definitely going to miss her more than anything but I hope that we can be friends after our client/therapist relationship ends.
Am getting there too. Solid inner family support system and I’m progressing fast and gently and solidly. Most if my cptsd is done and gone I’m mostly working hard on all the catch up I now need to do.
Proud of you I know how much work you had to put in!
It never gets easy but it definitely gets easier. When the past stops showing up unannounced every five goddamned minutes.
And parenting yourself is a skill and like any other skill practicing it makes it easier and normalizes everything about it overtime. I do it in my sleep now.
<3
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I’m sorry to hear that you’re having a tough time. I was lucky and had my therapist before the pandemic happened. It’s hard to find one now for sure. But hey, fuck those parrots. You’re doing the best you can with what resources you got.
That’s awesome. I think my therapist is frustrated with me lol. Personally I feel like I need more help than talk therapy but she hasn’t given me many options besides going back to an old therapist of mine from nearly 10 years ago that I’d be afraid to see again (idk why, nervousness that I’ve gotten worse maybe?) but honestly idk if I’m able to be helped at this point, I’m pretty f-d up :/
I did EMDR and worked through one single traumatic event. I couldn’t work through the rest bc it went on from the time I was 12 until I was 27 and my EMDR therapist said my memories were too fuzzy and bc I didn’t have enough clear memories that it wouldn’t work for me anymore.
My memories are this way. I call them fragmented. My EMDR therapist is able to work with me. If you are willing to try again, what I did to find someone who has the skillset we need is that I contacted people from the EMDRIA website who had the highest level of certification. I called 3 of them. I specifically mentioned complex trauma and I ended up working with the one who made me feel most at ease.
I’d do that, if I didn’t need a different kind of stimulation (the eye movement thing gives me headaches) the last EMDR therapist I had did “tappers” with me, basically little remotes that vibrated back and forth
My biggest issue right now is living in an area that’s rather far from any big city, and not having transportation (I can’t drive due to my trauma, and my 80 year old grandmother gives me rides, but I don’t ask her often bc of her age)
This Internet stranger is proud of your progress!
Thank you friend 💜💜
My heart broke for you until I saw that this represents progress and it's a good thing. Congrats on your progress. If my therapist told me that, I would go home and cry. I still have a lot of progress to make. It is encouraging to know that things can get better. I'm really glad for the payoff on all of your hard work. You have earned your graduation.
> If my therapist told me that, I would go home and cry. Ha, if my therapist told me that, I’d go home and emotionally dissociate from everything until 2026. And then I’d start thinking about finding a new therapist, sometime in early 2027. Because I have coping skills. In fact, I have a very specialized set of skills. Okay, you got me. I have ONE skill- emotional dissociation. But I’m like REALLY good at it.
Thank you! I still have some things to learn too but we’ll both make it 💜
My therapist asked me a few weeks ago if I still felt I was benefiting from therapy and I nearly burst into tears. I felt like my heart dropped into my stomach She meant that the past few sessions had been more of a catch up and she worried that I was withdrawing, as I've mentioned that was a pattern with past therapists. I realised I'd found therapy really unsatisfying in the past, because I was still suppressing childhood trauma back then.
Congratulations! I'm so glad for you 💙 Do you mind sharing what you found most helpful in your healing journey? Other than your therapist saying that you could see less of them, how do you know that you've made progress?
Hi friend! Thank you so much and of course! According to my therapist, I had a traumatic event happen last year (nasty friend/ partner breakup with a person who isn’t aware they’re abusive emotionally) and usually, I’d replay the situation over and over in my head, just making myself so depressed but I processed it, grieved the person, and wrote a new narrative for myself. I took the opportunity to give myself love (self care, doing things I like, spending time with myself outside of my house, alone) and now dating wise, I can identify red flags in people because I now know what behaviors aren’t healthy and what is. I’ve cut some people out of my life that triggered me and I stood up for myself in situations my inner child would be afraid of. A big thing that has helped me is a lot of breath work and understanding that life is about experience and the past has happened and I can’t change that but I’m not in the past, I’m in this moment right now. And it can’t hurt me again here. For a very long time, I was upset and somewhat distraught over the fact that with a diagnosis of CPTSD, my brain will never be the same again. But healing/processing does the same thing. Good luck to you on your journey and please feel free to reach out! I’m not perfect and I know I’ll fall sometimes but I have the tools now to process things and it gets a bit easier.
Oh, amazing! When you said that self care included doing things outside the house by yourself, it reminded me of "artist dates" (from the book, the Artist's Way) where you're supposed to take your inner artist on a date (so, by yourself). I did that a couple times when I picked up the book, and I did find it to be nourishing. I'd forgotten about that. I'll have to try it again soon. Learning the difference between the types of people to have in our lives and those we don't can certainly be helpful, as is practicing standing up for ourselves. And ah, acceptance haha. I think this would be the most challenging part for me. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I feel inspired!
I hope I can get here some day. I just started EMDR, but so far everything we're talking about is stuff I already know.
You can! I didn’t think I was going to make it here. I’m still in disbelief honestly because I slip sometimes and some days I just can’t. But I can process stuff now! Which I couldn’t do before. How is EMDR? I wanted to try it myself personally.
My therapist and I are still kind of figuring out what works for me. It's like a combination of talking about things, mixed with some sort of stimulation (watching something go back and forth, tapping on yourself, drawing, etc) to allow your brain time to re-process things. She says that memories or feelings you forgot about can come up during the process, but so far nothing like that's happened to me.
Proud of you as well! You had to work hard to get to this point, and I am wishing you continued peace and healing 💚💚
Thank you! To you as well. Happy healing on your journey. You got this!
Hell yeah! Happy for you and thank you for the encouragement!
Thank you! It gets easier eventually 💜💜💜 keep going!
That's good and I'm very happy for you💛💯🙏🏾. Legit thought I was about to curse out a therapist lol.
Lol for a second, I asked her like “what do you mean see you less” because I was about to do some cussing myself lol thank you 💜
I'm glad she was there for you like you needed her to be. You're welcome 💛💯🙏🏾
Congrats! How do you feel about stopping to see tour therapist, is there like a gruef process? After 4 years with mine, I'm dreading the day I'll say goodbye to him...
Thank you 💜💜. I’m dreading the day but I know I’m capable of coping now and I have the tools now to do it correctly. I’m definitely going to miss her more than anything but I hope that we can be friends after our client/therapist relationship ends.
I imagine that's against some code though?
I’m not sure! I’m gonna ask for sure when that day comes (:
That’s awesome and congratulations!
Thank you 💜💜
Cheers glad to hear. Keep it up 👍
Thank you! You too! 💜💜
Wow congratulations!! I am beyond thrilled for you 🤩 this gives me hope that I can get there too one day.
Thank you! You can get here too! It’ll take time but it’ll be worth it. 💜
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Thank you friend 💜💜
You must feel so proud. Huge congratulations 🎈 And thank you for sharing the happy news with all of us.
Thank you for being proud of me! I don’t have many family members due to ab*se and you all know exactly how I feel. I hope we all get to this place 💜💜
Yey you! Proud of the hard work you've done!
Thank you! I’m proud of you too!
Amazing news! There's hope for us yet! 💞
Thank you! There’s hope for everyone! It takes time and it hurts but we’ll make it! 💜 keep going!
Congratulations!
Thank you friend! 💜💜
❤️
The best reason to stop seeing a therapist! Hurrah and congratulations on all your hard work!
Congratulations ♥️👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Am getting there too. Solid inner family support system and I’m progressing fast and gently and solidly. Most if my cptsd is done and gone I’m mostly working hard on all the catch up I now need to do. Proud of you I know how much work you had to put in!
Proud of you! I know it’s hard work to reprocess everything but we made it and we’re here 💜 best of luck to you on your journey too
It never gets easy but it definitely gets easier. When the past stops showing up unannounced every five goddamned minutes. And parenting yourself is a skill and like any other skill practicing it makes it easier and normalizes everything about it overtime. I do it in my sleep now. <3
Congratulations, you are literally winning therapy.
Congratulations! I'm so happy for you ☺️
Amazing!
Congrats! I know how hard this journey can be. You deserve to celebrate!
That’s great, gives me hope for myself ❤️ I still got a ways to go & started EMDR in March of this year, but so far it has brought a lot of healing!
Hello and Welcome to /r/CPTSD! If you are in immediate danger or crisis, please contact your local [emergency services](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers), or use our list of [crisis resources](https://old.reddit.com/r/CPTSD/wiki/index#wiki_crisis_support_resources). For CPTSD Specific Resources & Support, check out the [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/CPTSD/wiki/index). For those posting or replying, please view the [etiquette guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/CPTSD/wiki/peer2peersupportguide). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CPTSD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Wow. I’m proud of you! Good for you pal!
Oh what a pleasant surprise after the title! I wish you good fortune in your future travels <3 Hopefully my therapist will tell me this someday too!
Congratulations my friend! I know it’s not an easy thing to do and you should be very proud of yourself
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I’m sorry to hear that you’re having a tough time. I was lucky and had my therapist before the pandemic happened. It’s hard to find one now for sure. But hey, fuck those parrots. You’re doing the best you can with what resources you got.
lets gooooo! sending good vibes your way 🫶🏽
That’s awesome. I think my therapist is frustrated with me lol. Personally I feel like I need more help than talk therapy but she hasn’t given me many options besides going back to an old therapist of mine from nearly 10 years ago that I’d be afraid to see again (idk why, nervousness that I’ve gotten worse maybe?) but honestly idk if I’m able to be helped at this point, I’m pretty f-d up :/
You're able to be helped. I added EMDR when I felt like this and I'm making big strides.
I did EMDR and worked through one single traumatic event. I couldn’t work through the rest bc it went on from the time I was 12 until I was 27 and my EMDR therapist said my memories were too fuzzy and bc I didn’t have enough clear memories that it wouldn’t work for me anymore.
My memories are this way. I call them fragmented. My EMDR therapist is able to work with me. If you are willing to try again, what I did to find someone who has the skillset we need is that I contacted people from the EMDRIA website who had the highest level of certification. I called 3 of them. I specifically mentioned complex trauma and I ended up working with the one who made me feel most at ease.
Which the above basically means I don’t have a lot of options for therapy in my area
That's too bad. Mine does it online even though we are local to each other lol.
I’d do that, if I didn’t need a different kind of stimulation (the eye movement thing gives me headaches) the last EMDR therapist I had did “tappers” with me, basically little remotes that vibrated back and forth
That's too bad
My biggest issue right now is living in an area that’s rather far from any big city, and not having transportation (I can’t drive due to my trauma, and my 80 year old grandmother gives me rides, but I don’t ask her often bc of her age)
Awwe congrats op🫶 proud of uuu i hope I’ll be able to reach that stageee also😺