Have you ever felt retraumatized/triggered by therapists/hospitals/treatment?

@Daydreamer47 It can definitely be a frustrating and anxiety provoking situation, when the professionals that are supose to be there to help guide you leave you feeling un heard and unvalidated. I have found the same sometimes, and if you find the pattern continues and your therapy isn't getting anywhere, please find a way if you can to communicate your concerns with your therapist. their res[onses might let you know what your next move will be in your treatment. You have the right, to agree or disagree what your treatment looks like or feel likes.

@Daydreamer47

Yeah i've seen three but I have a lot of trouble trusting people and dont like talking about myself and never really felt they could help me so I just lied and told them i was fine. One was really mean though she kept trying to get me to admit something was wrong with me so she'd have something to report to my mom.

@Daydreamer47

Interesting post :) It is sad when therapists work from their egos instead of their hearts... it is absolutely frustrating to see! I've witnessed it before and many years ago was left feeling awful after a very rude psychologist pressed his views onto me and basically disempowered me... so the very opposite of what he should have wanted to achieve.

However, lots of excellent therapists out there too - I guess that's how the world works. However, it is awful when you're already feeling traumatised to be left feeling even worse!

Lisa

Day Dreamer

I used to have this problem till I ended up taking a conflict management course. Called Crucial Conversation and after that I watch Jane Eliotes experiment of people with Brown eyes vs Blue Eyes.

As a Human one of the key problems that every therapist and its clients run into is trusting each other. On second account is expertise of therapists and experience in dealing social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of people.

Over the period of time I find explaining first regarding my own Believes to let the person know whom I am interacting so that a boundaries of respect get established. Then I ask about them what culture, ethnicity and religion they are from. If I don't know anything then I tell them clearly that I may not be able to help them as I don't have complete grasp on the knowledge but if they are willing I can do research and work with them with their help. It's going to time consuming and may not be quick.

I find my approach has been greatly respected and appreciated.

it defintely can be very hard to share things when there is fear creating a wall and other obstacles getting in the way of allowing a real and genuine relationship to be expereinced that had help nurture and fullfill. That is all I have to say. I am far from perfect at these things soo. maybe someone will look into my words and they will work for them or not they will just sit here in the obyss of the internet

@Daydreamer47

hey there,... with my anxiety i find talking about my past experiences with a counsellour or phych pretty stresfull, not so much the authority because ive not had my experiences denyed, more like 'smoothed over' so to make me feel I can get over it if it makes sence.. like my overthinking is the main issue, not the trauma/emotions. I'm pretty reluctant to open up because re-living my past can be pretty upseting as well as having someone tell me how that might have affected me, like there is something wrong.

Although, one of the weirder things i find is i can't handle someone with hushed tones or an all too smooth or soothing voice.. you know 'it'll be ok'.. 'your in a safe space here' .. really freaks me out, like i'm being spoken to like there is something wrong and i'll panic. i'm sure its got something to do with me trying to push away my past rather that accept it might have affected me in the long run.

hope my experience might help

@Daydreamer47 Just been re-diag with C-PTSD after they wrongly diag me with BPD and MDD but have certain links to both.

Was hospitalised years back and was still cutting when they released me.

Just got left in a corner smoking my head off and very little help

50 now and still struggling no therapy started yet for my C-PTSD

Dont have any hope for future or for the entire system really as feel they have let me down until now and mis-understood me completely from the outset.

Absolutely. A therapist who is not properly trained can absolutely cause more damage than harm. You're in a position, in therapy, of being in a vulnerable position. The therapist is in a position of power, then, authoritative power over someone who has experienced marginalization and abuse.

That's an institutional type of power, granted by both the authority who employs the therapist as well as society in general, where you have people saying, "Well, the therapist must be right. They know what they're doing."

It can make it extremely difficult to speak out against inconsistent, incoherent, unprofessional and borderline abusive experiences in a therapeutic setting. And when you're in that setting and your trust gets broken, it just reinforces for the patient with trauma experience, that others cannot be trusted as safe people; that spaces cannot be trusted as safe spaces.

And, ultimately, it makes receiving beneficial, sustaining, healing therapy infinitely harder for the trauma patient.

Just found this thread now. Have an upcoming psych follow up next week. I'm already starting to preemptively quiver with terror.

What Shark said about the power dynamics at play is so true. It's such an acknowledgement of total vulnerability. Having to trust the fate of my tenuous mental health in the hands of someone else just sets off that fight flight freeze FAWN overload in me.

Feels like I'm on trial, being tested, deemed unworthy for not showing enough progress -- every possible deeply internalized negative all or nothing thought is projected onto a looming authority figure who has been entrusted with caring for me. It totally retraumatizes without fail, every single time. Ugh.

Yes, I have been retraumatized by therapists and medical professionals. I have tried to seek help from therapists for my traumas but it got worse over the years due to their treatment of me. I was told things like- " Your kind of trauma I see everyday in my office." "Your experiences are not uncommon and not that big a deal." "People have gone through similar and much worse than you." "You need to find a way to get over it." "You are a wife and need to do what your husband wants. You can't keep denying him and holding back." " So what did you expect? You got what you deserved." These kind of callous and invalidating statements created a deeper hole inside of me that hasn't ever healed. The pain drove me further away from seeking help, as time and time again, similar damaging professionals continued to tear at my wounds and create new traumas.