Doing therapy isn't about building up neurotic emotional boundaries to deny the trauma a person has gone through. It's quite the opposite. You work on talking about your traumas, diving into them, understanding them, understanding how they shaped you, and learning to cope with the effects of trauma in your day to day life. This is essentially the basic principles of modern psychotherapy. I think most therapists would agree with this assessment. It's basically like what you say should happen, which is a good thing, but your claim that "typical" therapists don't do such things is not true.
"Understanding" one's traumas, talking about them, learning to cope with the effects of trauma, and so on are NOT the same as experiencing the trauma (for the FIRST TIME, since by definition, repressed trauma has not yet been experienced -- it may be remembered intellectually, but it hasn't been fully experienced) -- and that is the effect and reason for neurotic defenses in the first place. "Understanding" trauma is intellectual; trauma itself is on levels below. Understanding can be helpful in the present, just as other defenses can be -- if you're going to have defenses, better to have ones that are harmless or even helpful in some way, but they are still defenses and not the same as getting well. Getting well is way better, although I believe only a vanishingly small percentage of the population is interested in or able to do such therapy -- and for that matter, those who are reasonably comfortable and well-functioning are not likely to seek (or in many cases to need) therapy. Not getting hurt in the first place (the importance of proper treatment of children!) is far superior to trying to get well after being traumatized.
Yes, I know that therapists and theorists believe they are doing what I talked about, but most of them are wrong, and here is one way to confirm that:
A major childhood trauma -- for instance, death of a parent at a young age, especially if that parent is the primary or only "safe" person in the child's life -- can take months of full-body sobbing, crying, and full-throated screaming to experience (as well as quieter action and integration). As more of the trauma gets fully experienced, less remains to be repressed; actually feeling the trauma drains it from the system as it becomes just an old, painful memory instead of a constant force pushing to rise into consciousness and causing act-outs in the present -- actions that are in some way appropriate to past, repressed experience but not to the present situation.
Any therapy that doesn't involve that level of emotional experience is superficial, and further confirmation about that is in the recidivism rate for many (most?) symptoms despite years of therapy.
Yes, I know this is seen as complete cranksterism by almost everyone. So are most of the truths exposed on GA, which doesn't make this one correct but does at least expose how deep and wide the Matrix is, if you will.
I had many hours of ACOA therapy involving rage work and I discovered much about myself and was given tools to continue the work to this day. Without these experiences I would not be here today.
I'm glad to hear that, mengderen. I know a number of people who have had similar experiences from various forms of therapy, or from AA -- which often goes well along WITH other forms of therapy -- and from following through on their own with things they've read. As I say above,
Understanding can be helpful in the present, just as other defenses can be
There's been a lot of ingenuity in creating different approaches to helping people deal with their feelings. Defenses aren't bad -- we couldn't function without them.
Doing therapy isn't about building up neurotic emotional boundaries to deny the trauma a person has gone through. It's quite the opposite. You work on talking about your traumas, diving into them, understanding them, understanding how they shaped you, and learning to cope with the effects of trauma in your day to day life. This is essentially the basic principles of modern psychotherapy. I think most therapists would agree with this assessment. It's basically like what you say should happen, which is a good thing, but your claim that "typical" therapists don't do such things is not true.
What I said IS true.
"Understanding" one's traumas, talking about them, learning to cope with the effects of trauma, and so on are NOT the same as experiencing the trauma (for the FIRST TIME, since by definition, repressed trauma has not yet been experienced -- it may be remembered intellectually, but it hasn't been fully experienced) -- and that is the effect and reason for neurotic defenses in the first place. "Understanding" trauma is intellectual; trauma itself is on levels below. Understanding can be helpful in the present, just as other defenses can be -- if you're going to have defenses, better to have ones that are harmless or even helpful in some way, but they are still defenses and not the same as getting well. Getting well is way better, although I believe only a vanishingly small percentage of the population is interested in or able to do such therapy -- and for that matter, those who are reasonably comfortable and well-functioning are not likely to seek (or in many cases to need) therapy. Not getting hurt in the first place (the importance of proper treatment of children!) is far superior to trying to get well after being traumatized.
Yes, I know that therapists and theorists believe they are doing what I talked about, but most of them are wrong, and here is one way to confirm that:
A major childhood trauma -- for instance, death of a parent at a young age, especially if that parent is the primary or only "safe" person in the child's life -- can take months of full-body sobbing, crying, and full-throated screaming to experience (as well as quieter action and integration). As more of the trauma gets fully experienced, less remains to be repressed; actually feeling the trauma drains it from the system as it becomes just an old, painful memory instead of a constant force pushing to rise into consciousness and causing act-outs in the present -- actions that are in some way appropriate to past, repressed experience but not to the present situation.
Any therapy that doesn't involve that level of emotional experience is superficial, and further confirmation about that is in the recidivism rate for many (most?) symptoms despite years of therapy.
Yes, I know this is seen as complete cranksterism by almost everyone. So are most of the truths exposed on GA, which doesn't make this one correct but does at least expose how deep and wide the Matrix is, if you will.
I had many hours of ACOA therapy involving rage work and I discovered much about myself and was given tools to continue the work to this day. Without these experiences I would not be here today.
I'm glad to hear that, mengderen. I know a number of people who have had similar experiences from various forms of therapy, or from AA -- which often goes well along WITH other forms of therapy -- and from following through on their own with things they've read. As I say above,
There's been a lot of ingenuity in creating different approaches to helping people deal with their feelings. Defenses aren't bad -- we couldn't function without them.