Very similar to the therapy I am in. This seems to be the gold stand of treating PTSD right now. My therapist is coupling this with DBT, there is a free site, www.dbtselfhelp.com that is really good.

I also trust my therapist and that is important for this type of therapy. I have committed to believing this process will make me better. What it does is rewire the brain so it by passes the trauma. Right now anything that happens, the wiring goes straight to the trauma area of the brain which is the right rear, most other areas of the brain stop working, and it loops and loops in the right rear of the brain. The right rear area cannot make decisions, function, solve problems etc. This process is about forming new pathways to areas of the brain that can function, think and solve problems, so when something happens, you utilize those areas rather then the trauma area. It is exciting stuff and should make a huge difference in my life, but it is a long process and you need to be stable to do this. I am having problems being stable right now.

Good luck

This sounds similar to what I did too except my therapist called it inner child work. I worked with each of my inner children to remove them from the abuse, empower them to destroy the abuser and then to heal them to a point where they grew up. As each child healed from the abuse my panic did decrease.

There seem to be many ways to approach the healing process - inner child work was perfect for me. The good thing is that if one method does not work for you there are others to try.

Please keep us posted on how this method works for you!

Yes, that is the same too. We do work with the inner child and a lot of work on how I feel, what emotions are at the table or in the room, which one has the control at the moment. Is it a child or an adult. We use DBT to build distress tolerance, mindfulness, etc. These are the things that help you deal with the triggers. I think this is the current gold standard of treatment for PTSD along with meds. I am told this will work and rewire my brain, I hope so, I will have invested a lot of my time in this and a lot of effort. There is a lot of home work involved.

The kaleidoscope of theories within the infant science of psychology is truly mind-boggling. I have developed an almost fanatical belief that it is important to learn one before jumping into the alphabet soup available through bookstores, on-line resources, etc. It is good to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out. Ya gots to pick one and give it an honest shot...

You have a therapist who has guided you this far into the process. I encourage you to trust her. Ask her to recommend those books and self-treatments and trust her to guide you through the early going. There will be plenty of time to expand later on. We will all LOVE it if you share her recommendations with us while you build your foundation. Please share as you go!!! Yea, there is a ton of experience and understanding here, but we can always use more.

Just my opine...

Congrats on that great breakthrough. Acceptance can be a powerful healing tool.

"One cannot change a thing without first accepting it as it is." ~Zen proverb

I had a therapist try to do that with me before. We would go back to certain points in the past and pretend that they were the present, and she would try to help my child or younger self. If that makes sense...

Yeah, it sounds silly, but I got PTSD as a child in war, so in therapy we gave my little war child a nickname and praised him for being such a brave kid. A perspective I'd never taken. It did me lots of healing good.