Treating PTSD: Are you engaging in the healing process?

When I first started healing my PTSD – after I stopped denying there was, in fact, a situation that needed to be healed — I didn’t know where to begin. I went to therapy all out of whack, didn’t know what to talk about when, didn’t want to talk and was utterly lost and confused about what I was doing there in the first place.

The point? There’s more to healing than just showing up at your practitioner’s office. You actually have to engage in the work.  Not that this is an easy thing to do. We’re sleep deprived, jittery, strung out, depressed, overwhelmed and frightened — and then in the middle of this we’re supposed to be clearheaded enough to have a conversation with someone who isn’t feeling any of those things. Sure….

Some days you go to your therapist’s office and just want to turn the tables and say, “You talk to me today.” The problem with this is that after you pay for those 45 minutes you won’t have gotten anywhere; your healing will be stalled and your therapist will still get paid.

Today’s BTG Big Question: Are you doing whatever it takes to engage in the therapeutic process?

It’s easy to blame the therapist when you don’t make the progress you seek — and sometimes that is where the fault lies — but if you’re not opening up, following cues and exploring unwanted territory then you are not doing whatever it takes to heal.

After my trauma a psychiatrist came to speak to me before I was released from the hospital. True, I was only 13 and not really equipped to have a conversation about what I’d just survived, but still: I refused to even look at her. I would not talk, answer a question or hold her gaze.

Do you do any of these things in your therapy sessions? (Quick tip: This behavior landed me in PTSD heaven for over 25 years.)

Don’t make the mistake of being lucky enough to have a therapist, friend or family member willing to help you talk through your PTSD issues and not make the most of it.

Get brave. Get chatty. Get into it - healing only happens when you go for it.

No matter how big it is climb the mountain, reach out your hand, and hold on to whomever reaches for you from the other side.

BRIDGE THE GAP Exercise

Think about your last therapy session, or the last time you got into a conversation with someone about healing. Did you really listen to the questions? Did you really consider what was being said? Did you say anything at all??

Consider your behavior. What could you have done differently so that you were more of a participant? What questions could you have asked, statements could you have made, honest reflections could you have allowed?

Make a list. The next time you find yourself with someone willing to listen and help, whip out your list and amp up your interaction. Healing only happens when YOU make it so.

(Photo: Sunna Guatadottir)

Tags: Doing Whatever It Takes To Heal, healing, process, ptsd