I am on and off have been for years
Oof. I’m in this picture and I don’t like it.
I had one session dedicated to how investigating root causes for trauma, all the way back to the very moment it started, wasn’t necessarily all that helpful. My therapist was right, of course - the present-day triggers and mindfulness are where to focus - but for a heated moment, I had a very hard time agreeing. Inside the same session I was also beside myself in disbelief that I actually argued with my own therapist without a second thought.
Describes recent traumatic event that’s taking over my ability to focus or think clearly about anything.
“Have you eaten today”
Do you want to know the source of the arrow or do you want to pull it out? Because you can do the first part after.
I have never been able to answer that well. I don’t have locational feelings as far as I know. I don’t get it.
It’s not possible to not have “locational feelings” because they are physically located in your body.
But you probably have trauma that would rather you die than feel them. So you need someone who can help you at a high level.
What? Where did you go to Dr school?
YouTube?
It made more sense to me once I realised I was muscle guarding. The body reacts to emotions as much as you do. For example, I used to be hunched a lot and have terrible posture because I didn’t feel tall. So I worked on allowing myself to slowly stretch out and be tall. There were various points in my body I was holding unnecessary tension, and I felt much better once I relaxed them and let go of my past.
There was no emotional release or crying, but it made more sense from that perspective. “The body keeps the score” and all that
Yes. It’s pretty useful. My therapist is also autistic and it’s really helpful to be able to communicate in my natural way and not be misunderstood.
I highly recommend “The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy” by Steph Jones, cleared up a lot of things for me
Got stunlocked by that question when I started crying during a therapy session. Therapist noticed that I choke up so badly while crying that I can’t speak and just wanted me to notice it too. “Does it feel like you can’t share what’s going on inside you because nobody’s going to listen?”
Fuck all the way off. That was so helpful but so so so painful to recognize.
ugh, I hadn’t put such succinct words to it but I experience the same thing, makes talk therapy really difficult. There’s the part of me that feels like if I’m crying I need a REALLY GOOD reason for it and if I don’t, I need to stfu so whatever I say in the moment isn’t thrown back at me. I guess it all boils down to trusting someone else in a vulnerable moment… so fucking hard.
That sounds like they were doing their job correctly then, yes?
In my brain
Literally me 4 weeks ago. Finished my explanation and therapist said “yes, that’s interesting and possibly true, you didn’t talk about your emotions at all”
Intellectualizing your feelings is part of the problem
Listen, it may be part of the problem but it’s not the cause of the problem so it’s allowed to remain until the root cause is found. Then when we pull that out we’ll take all the parts with it.
Obviously.
He would go on to do himself no favors, intellectualize his feelings and talk himself out of any real resolution, forever.
Well it’s all of the problem
Oh shit
Had that question in one session and honestly: it helped me a lot!
I’m over rationalizing my emotions to the point where it’s difficult to actually feel or even properly differentiate how they feel. Trying to shut down my head and actually listening to what’s going on in my body is a good exercise. I can now properly distinguish fear from anger which subsequently changed how I view myself (I’m not vicious, angry, mean or aggressive all the time, I’m not like my abusers!).
Sometimes therapy feels weird and it’s creeping me out but I never regretted playing along and trusting in my therapist. But I also chose her very specifically.
You don’t wanna know where I feel it, doc. Doesn’t matter which end it comes out, it ain’t pretty.
I want to be but, well, Japan isn’t great for that (particularly in English where I can speak about things with a lot more nuance and comfort). Add to that NHI doesn’t cover therapy, just psychiatry.
Having been in therapy, this describes precisely none of my therapy. I’m feeling pretty lucky
Where in your body do you feel lucky?
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
One of the most important thing I learned in therapy is that feelings don’t happen in my brain.
And that it’s actually really important to talk about those feelings
Yeah; it wasn’t until years after I left therapy that I discovered that the body’s reaction to an emotion actually performs a vital part of processing that emotion, and you should try and notice it where you can.
