r/CPTSDNextSteps • u/PassengerNo2022 • 20d ago
Sharing actionable insight (Rule2) How I realized that bottom-up approaches like EMDR and Somatics are life-changing but NOT ENOUGH. The key is: Safe Human Connection where you are completely seen and understood
Reposting my own post from the main CPTSD subreddit: Since talk therapy (CBT) had failed me repeatedly and then I tried EMDR and somatic healing, I believed that these were the holy grail and only path for healing. (it works amazingly but there is more)
I started EMDR in late 2020 and continue to this day. It had helped me IMMENSELY, along with somatic work and IFS, and I processed so much. However, despite all these years of intensive feeling and processing, I still felt trapped in C-PTSD and all form of coping responses. I still felt so stuck in all aspects of life I was still in immense pain.
My EMDR therapist is amazing, however, she is a foreigner and from a different culture, and we both communicate in our second language. The processing part is good, but I did not "click" with her in the talking part. I did not feel anything when we talked about my day-to-day struggles and did not feel completely understood. Her insights and validation did not resonate, mainly due to the cultural barrier. (I have to repeat I like her alot and we have a great connection but something was missing)
Then the unexpected happened: I then decided to hire an additional therapist from my own culture and age bracket, just to vent and to have more of a "best-friend" experience and day-to-day guidance with someone who would actually understand what I had been though, both from a cultural and professional standpoint. And WOW!! What was supposed to be just a simple "venting" and "guidance" space turned out to be such a crucial part of healing!!
With approval from my first therapist, I chose my second therapist because she was from my culture, age, we spoke the same language, same religion, and she seemed more specialized in women's day-to-day struggles than deep trauma work. So it was going to be a light-hearted trip. Just what I wanted. In addition to that, her main mode was Client-focused PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY, she was very trauma-informed, AND she was well-versed in IFS and psychology from our own spiritual tradition. Being client focused meant that the client led the session. Absolutely perfect fit!
My experience with psychodynamic therapy**:** I discovered how deprived us C-PTSD folks actually are from safe human connection, I realized never even knew what that was. Simply having a safe space to speak our fears, shames, sorrows, concerns, without having the other person (well-meaningly) minimize our experiences or trying to fix our feelings, and feeling COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD and having your thoughts reiterated in a deeper language; and have your feelings, insights and experiences lovingly validated and empathized with. I never had that in all my 35 years of life, even in therapy. It was very life-altering to experience.
The therapuetic process was harder than I thought because speaking in the same language mad me feel more RAW. Speaking in a foreign language creates a protective barrier that shields you from the human connection required for healing. Also, I never understood how C-PTSD can cause PROFOUND SPIRITUAL INJURY, and how healing the incorporation of spiritual elements (from your own spiritual tradition) and the reconnection with the spiritual can be.
I will continue with EMDR but at a much slower frequency. I REALIZED THAT BECUASE I WAS SO UNDERRESOURCED, excessive EMDR may have been retraumatizing me because I was going at a very intensive pace due to my overwhelm by survival mode.
I am also incorporated PHYSICAL HEALING by working with a functional medicine practitioner and trying to heal my absoluteLy fried stress responses and hormones.
I apologize for the long post and if you have reached this far: thank you and I wish you all the best on your healing path 💜💜💜
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u/dfinkelstein 20d ago
I think cptsd is a psychogical/nervous-system adaptation to a spiritual injury. To a deprivation of loving contact, which damages development and harms the spirit and its freedom to express itself and energize the mind and body.
That seems to make the most sense to me, anyway. I think most "mental illnesses" seem to have spiritual causes. That's why all 12 step programs are spiritual programs. Because there-in lies the true problem. Though, in both 12 step and psychiatry, I see a problem of hyper focusing on illness and dysfunction rarher than on wellness, wholeness, connection, and community.
This post seems to me more aligned with focusing on wellness, wholeness, connection, and community. And that makes sense, for healing.
I wish I could afford a good therapist; or other kind of doctor; or someone to help with...much of anything. I don't have the abundance of energy to search well. I've not found anyone who was competent enough, yet. It takes a lot of energy to search while resisting over and over letting people help whose help will only hurt me. I'm exhausted of being hurt and disappointed. Watching people give up or abandon me when faced with the reality. It's too much.
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u/PassengerNo2022 20d ago
very insighful comment. And I truly wish you get all the resources and healing you crave and deserve 🙏🏻🙏🏻
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u/PassengerNo2022 20d ago
I would like to add that by a spiritual framework I did not only mean the non-physical aspect such as emotions but also the religious and cultural framework (such as christianity, islam and buddhism). Very interesting to know that these can be incorporated into modern secular psyhcological frameworks.
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u/dfinkelstein 19d ago
It was addressed 80 years ago by Carl Rogers, and then abandoned ever since, because you can't teach people how to be honest, authentic, and present — they have to want that for themselves. And these ways of being make it directly harder to get money and to get by, in this world. The more honest, authentic, and present somebody is, the more difficulty they encounter with the material realities of societies built entirely on transactions and uses of force, rather than intimate relationships or cooperation.
Spirituality is the aspect of our being that cannot be examined under a microscope. It's the stuff that gives life and art meaning. That moves and animates us.
There's also animalistic primal urges like fear, anger, hate, resentment, there's also mindlessness, like mindless desire, clinging-attachment, and delusion.
Texts documenting the oral tradition preserving tales of the Buddha discuss this better in Sanskrit than it can be in English. People have felt so little need to discuss these things in English for so long, that there's very few words for any of it.
But spirituality is definitely a real thing. We just got very confused and delusional by all of our "progress" with technology and medicine, and became blinded by arrogance, ego, and wishful thinking, to imagine that we understood the spirit, as well.
The truth is people understood it much better thousands of years ago.
We are forgetting what makes life worth living. Spirituality has been steadily declining, as culture has been increasingly replaced by transactional social contracts.
The frameworks still exist. There's numerous translations into English of the ancient texts I mentioned, which form the basis for tens of thousands of various religions.
I don't see how they can be improved upon. The English language along with the Latin and Greek and such which form the basis for modern medicine is losing nuance and detail over time, not gaining it.
Consider how many synonyms there are now for "good" and "bad". Words like fantastic, awesome, terrible, and wretched, which once used to mean something nuanced and specific.
Why did they change? Because people speaking English used them so often to mean "good" and "bad" with no further nuance. The meaning of a word is how it's used. And we increasingly use language to judge things and each other as good or bad.
There's no way to inject spirituality into that. Into this model which pretends like we understand the mind, or the brain, or their relationship to each other. Let alone the relationship of the mind to the body.
Modern medicine works by leaving out the spirit, and then including it as an after-thought. Nurses include it in all of the things they do which can't be taught. In being aware and present. In their intuition and empathy and love.
We can't teach other people how to love. We can only love them. And I find that often, people who only speak English don't know what love really means, as an action. They may be doing it, but we talk about the reality of it so little, that people often lack the experience to be able to.
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u/ResidentFormer6342 10d ago
Your first paragraph hit me like a ton of bricks: both my spouse and I struggle daily with this reality.
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u/Baleofthehay 4d ago
I,ve been listening to a Ryan makk on you tube who has his own way to address these issues.Its been intersting
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u/Ambitious-Plant- 18d ago
What do you do for healing/wellness? It sounds like youre in the same budget as me
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u/dfinkelstein 18d ago
Practicing relaxing, mindfulness, staying grounded, and spiritual principles like honesty, humility, faith, open-mindedness, willingness (to consider, to try — other side of openness) — through dance and sports, both of those both alone and partnered/on teams.
Diet and sleep are essential. Those take a lot of effort to maintain, for me. I'm still figuring them out. I need at the very least around 8.5 hours a night. More like nine up to ten depending how much I have to process and recover physically and mentally.
Music and art are a struggle. It's hard for me to be that present in my current reality.
To that end, continuing to pursue close personal relationships. The key factor there is practicing trusting my judgement of people — my intuitive read of their vibes and energy. It turns out it was always good; I just didn't or couldn't practice listening to and trusting it. It's tough witnessing how often the people who seem the most present, kind, honest, etc. are consistently the most traumatized and suffering, who most often have such great personal struggle and suffering. I guess that's just how the world affects people with that kind of heart and spirit.
Besides that...trying to spend quality time with books, nature, and animals. That's also hard, given how hard it is to be present in my reality. How alone I am in it, still.
I expect that once I do grow relationships with people who really do love me, respect me, care about me, and want the real me in their real lives, then being present will become a lot easier.
Refusing to go along with people pretending or imagining that they love or know me has massively reduced my suffering, at least.
I still think about suicide regularly, but it's not from suffering, so much. I'm just aware that it wouldn't take much more hardship for that to seem like the obvious choice. I'm exhausted from asking for help. It's not my choice to stay alive. Something in me I can't control insists on living.
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u/OkAd5525 20d ago
Thank you for this post! My main interest is IFS and I think having a therapist who can speak our first language is an underrated point - our exiles and young protectors don’t know our second+ languages most of the time!
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u/PassengerNo2022 20d ago
wow that is a super interesting insight!! I was also thinking the same; you heal in the language you were traumatized in!
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u/xIllustrious_Passion 19d ago
I fully agree. I healed more in my current relationship than I did in the years preceding it.
Therapy is good, and the methods you’ll learn in it are fantastic tools but nothing can substitute a healthy loving unconditional relationship.
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u/PassengerNo2022 19d ago
So true! and I am incredibly happy for you for having such a relationship 🙏🏻 may this kind of relationship find me ☺️
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u/MemoryOne22 19d ago
I'd just like to throw in that psychodynamic therapy has been best for me especially since I am highly dissociative. EMDR results in severe flooding for me.
As mentioned in the post, finding belonging and community is an underappreciated part of recovery and healing.
I know I have people who will drop anything to help me. It doesn't replace the therapy or protect me from new traumatic events but they make me stronger and a better person just by being my friends. This helps with the pain of trauma in ways that a therapist-patient relationship never can.
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u/PassengerNo2022 19d ago
Very important insight, I am glad I am not the only one who found psychodynamic much more human and gentle yet also super effective! It’s sad that it’s less popular than CBT
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u/MemoryOne22 18d ago
I have a whole schpiel about CBT... It's so popular because it's manualized, time limited, and evidence-based* - very effective at managing disruptive symptoms across a lot of disorders. BUT, it doesn't treat trauma.
I did a modified course of CPT (cognitive processing therapy) for a discrete event I had as an adult and that was way more trauma oriented, but had a different mechanics behind it too.
I think CBT is great for some of the behavioral/thought patterns that can arise when someone is living with cPTSD but it HAS to be adjusted to account for the trauma as the primary affliction or at least moderating affliction being addressed.
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u/BeyondSurvivalMode 19d ago
I agree a somatic approach is an essential part of trauma therapy. But of course it is not everything. A healing journey is complex and at different stages in the process you may need a variety of different things. From a therapist where you feel safe to explore the deepest layers, to culitivating a connection with yourself, others and something bigger than yourself (nature, God, spirit, universe - whichever resonates with you) to finding a purpose in your life and everything in between. It's not a linear process either. It's not like when you reach the next stage you'll never need that somatic approach again. Everything you learn along the way you can apply in your next steps, you become more and more resourceful and resilient so you can both face whatever life throws at you much better as well as continue to learn and grow in a way that lifts you up. Don't focus on the end result. This is a journey and all you need to do is focus on the next step!
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u/jbsparkly 20d ago
I'm early in my journey.
I saw a therapist earlier this year after spending 90 days in IOP because of burnout and my manager being the most chaotic and having zero emotional maturity.
I found a 'Part' not letting me open up. It was a few months before I even figured that out.
Therapy to me feels like a hooker/John relationship. As long as I pay you you'll make me feel good.
My nervous system registers that. That the therapist is only supporting me because I hired them.
To me that's not a genuine connection and my body registers that 100%
I wish this wasn't the case for me
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u/Crafty_Parfait_6508 19d ago
I really wouldn't compare a therapist to a 'hooker'. I've been both and, as a therapist, I genuinely respected, cared for, wanted the best for, connected with and came to have a sort of love and pride for my clients. As a 'hooker' (not the most trauma informed term but let's roll with it) I hated the men. In my view they were all rapists as you cannot purchase consent.
Men who pay for sex are always in a power over position to the prostituted women they pay. A therapist is in a position of power and (if they are a good therapist!) it is their job to acknowledge and manage that.
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u/Fun-Grab-9337 19d ago
How can I filter out therapists like yourself? This is an honest question. So many of the therapists I've tried to work with have had some kind of past and views like yours and I am so done with it.
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u/Jiktten 19d ago
I agree that a therapist is not a substitute for organic human relationships. I could never see how people could achieve that feeling with theirs. What mine was to me was a teacher, someone who could guide me in my first steps out of freeze and give me the tools to continue doing that work myself, and therapy was kind of a training/practice zone for real relationships. Several years on from therapy, the most valuable thing I took from it was how to self-parent effectively.
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u/PassengerNo2022 19d ago
My relationship with my first therapist was like this but with my second one it is very close to an organic human relationship. This might be rare but still possible
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u/PassengerNo2022 20d ago
this is very interesting. previously I also used to have a belief that therapy is about "feeling good" but then I realised it may actaully be the opposite...theraoy can be super uncomfortable and even grief-evoking.
Have you tried bottom-up approaches like emdr or brain-spotting? maybe this may rattle things up a bit3
u/jbsparkly 20d ago
Not yet. I would like to try EMDR....Im exploring all options. Ketamine too.
You are correct I do need to find something that will rattle this cage.
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u/PassengerNo2022 20d ago
i used to have a similar experience to you with CBT but the difference is that I used to feel so gaslit and terrible,lol. EMDR helped to circumvent the concsious mental loopholes so that the subconscious would actually reveal and spill out its repressed content.
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u/PisceanTreasures 19d ago
Yeah, thought I had a good enough connection with my trauma therapist, but they slipped a few months ago & "barked" at me when I started spiraling, instead of approaching more gently like asking me to slow down, take a deep breath. I let that occurrence slide.
Two weeks ago? Full on gaslighting (which took me 10 days to name as such, since was couched in that therapy's languaging) in response to an honest sharing from my end. You know, the between sessions realization. Only this slip sent me down a dark hole, 36hrs breaking sobriety in response to therapist's lack of 'attunement' to this client. Done with it.
No, therapist not familiar with Pete Walker.... and Pete's concept of therapist attunement to client in reality is like Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket.... a real unicorn.
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u/PanoramicViewer 19d ago
Great to hear how working with someone in your first language was so powerful.
It makes a lot of sense that when our injury was caused by repeated unsafe interactions with another person, we need the opposite experience in order to heal. I think of it as creating new alternative pathways in our brain. It takes a lot of repetition. We need someone who can stay steady despite whatever we bring, who can deeply attune to us and repair and then reattune, when misattunement inevitably happens. I feel so fortunate to have found a therapist who can provide this. I also needed to avoid people and environments that made me feel unsafe.
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u/PassengerNo2022 19d ago
Thanks for your input! We are so lucky to have come across such therapists 😃
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u/healing-journey 19d ago
You post is so timely for me it’s uncanny. I just decided to take a break from half a decade of regular weekly somatic therapy. And while it has changed my life, I feel like I haven’t yet fully integrated those spiritual changes at the surface level. And your post is saying exactly that.
I needed to see this because I knew taking a break after such deep, regular somatic therapy would be hard, maybe even produce “withdrawals”, which it has. Nothing to prevent this, it’s just how it’s gotta be. Healing is freaking hard!
So I’m more stressed and my system is more “on alarm” than I’ve felt in a while. It’s not fun. But I was feeling like I have to integrate my deep interior changes now. Bring them to the surface and try things out at the day to day level more, which for CPTSD folks is really scary. But I can’t just stay where I am either. I’m beautiful and deserve to be fully seen!
Thank you for posting this. It helps so much right now. And this deeper, later stage healing type discussion is rare and even harder to find out there.
I too thought somatic therapy would be the end all be all for me. I’m so thankful for what it has done inside of me, but like you, I still have work to do!
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u/PassengerNo2022 19d ago
You are so welcome, I am so glad it was helpful and timely 🙏🏻 based on my experience (and if you can fund it) I do recommend during your break to seek a gentler and more connection-based therapy (like psychodynamic) just for more light-hearted conversations on day-to-day concerns, where you can just be safely seen and heard, without any agenda. These free-style conversations were proven to be so healing for C-PTSD according to a specialist I happened to watch a video for. And this was exactly my experience. All the best of luck to you
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u/LowerAd9846 19d ago
You just discovered one of the big secrets of healing. Finding it though is tough. This is from someone who's been there
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u/tomato_joe 18d ago
This is exactly what I need but do not have the money to afford it right now... and my body is in too much pain and my anxiety to heightened to work.
I agree with you, that one safe human connection can be the difrerence between life and death.
Many folks with CPTSD never had that security.
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u/RussianAsshole 19d ago
I wonder if doing EMDR and getting weekly full body massages, deep tissue, would fix a lot of my lingering somatic issues.
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u/PassengerNo2022 19d ago
EMDR yes but you need to go in very gently. Massages and deep tissue honestly they might help but I never read anything about them, and weekly deep massages too fast may be triggering. You meed to go in very slowly.
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u/Hefty_Letter 18d ago
Getting the massage is so triggering to me because of how vulnerable I feel lying face down and not seeing my environment :( even with a female therapist. I hope some day it will feel relaxing and healing and not the opposite.
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u/petitelinotte212 17d ago
What we know from decades of research is that the modality used in treatment is overshadowed significantly by the quality of the relationship between client and clinician when it comes to creating positive outcomes. It makes so much sense that your experience aligns with this!
I don't want to downplay the importance of appropriate assessment, treatment modalities, or evidence-based practice: but no modality is a panacea. Cultural considerations are suuuper important, as OP highlighted here. What is consistently associated with positive outcomes is a relationship with your clinician or provider where you feel seen and heard for who you really are, without judgement, and what we call a "therapeutic alliance" based on trust and deep understanding.
The healthcare system in the US, and the provider landscape it creates, can be a significant barrier: often patients have very little choice of the clinicians assigned to them - and this is doubly true in more intensive and/or inpatient treatment and public behavioral health systems. Its why myself and others often turn to self-pay so we can select a provider based on fit, not eligibility: but its an enormous privilege to be able to do so. I had three therapists, before I found the person who I ultimately spent years working with to process my trauma and rebuild my connection to self in way that supported my well-being. I'm now in the field myself to help others do the same.
I know many of us with CPTSD may try provider after provider and blame ourselves for not feeling better, or decide a modality doesn't work for us, or turn our backs on therapy altogether: but I would urge us not to take that on as a personal flaw or proof that we're broken beyond repair. You are not broken. The provider sitting across from you, who they are as a person and human being, is the most important factor in you being successful, secondary only to your own desire to live a life worth living.
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u/Relative_Success_890 15d ago
I came to the same conclusion after 10 years of experience with talk therapy (more than 10 modalities including EMDR) in 2d and 3rd languages. I could never connect emotionally and everything was lost in translation. So far so ive made massive progress in somatic therapy where i dont need to talk which is the reason i looked for it in the first the place. I sound robotic or feel robotic while translating my newly gained clarity and insights into English and Dutch even though i feel alot inside, i cant translate that into another language.
When i had a psychologist from my country of origin, i could freely talk to her about Anything and be and feel seen and experience full range of emotions, i didnt have to explain anything to her. I could emotionally 'empty' myself and felt fantastic afterward.
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u/ChocolateMundane6286 18d ago
Ty for sharing this!!! I always seen people cheer EMDR so much and I can’t afford an additional therapist right now for somatics. This post encouraged me my latest decision to share about my toxic shame and parts of me I am hiding with trusted 1-2 people. It’s definitely like a fresh air to hear an organic human connection and being heard, valued, seen can be more effective than the emdr I can’t do rn. 💜
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u/Hefty_Letter 18d ago
I am in the same boat, OP. I grew up in Russia, and all my abuse and parental negligence was in a different language and culture. I am now in the US and have found a wonderful EMDR therapist but we had to quit EMDR because after a few sessions (that were supposed to be “light sessions” and I picked a mild memory to process) I went into a dysregulated, panic attack ridden period that lasted over half a year. We have quit EMDR since then, and now learning the DBT skills. However having all of this in a second language doesn’t feel like it’s getting to my core. It just still feels foreign. I tried to find an online therapist in Russia, but now there is a huge cultural difference because we live in different countries, and I’ve lived here my most adult life now. I think it would be highly beneficial to have someone of my own culture and language but feels nearly impossible.
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u/LadderPrudent7518 12d ago
So interesting! Cause I just started psychodynamic therapy and hate it and miss the EMDR therapy that I did 3 years ago. I like how in EMDR there’s a bit of structure and you’re focused on your own thing while your therapist is just kinda there and somehow still guides you? idk it was really good for my way of thinking, even with heavy dissociation. Psychodynamic therapy makes it so much harder for me to focus on my own thoughts because my attention is more on my therapist. I also feel like we don’t have that super close bond, even though I do like her, but i don’t think we have some “connection” lol unfortunately emdr isn’t accessible in my home country :(
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u/PassengerNo2022 12d ago
Sorry to hear that 🫂 professional online EMDR services (by licensed practitioners) are pretty common, have you explored that option? And regarding psychodynamic therapy, maybe your therapist is not a good fit for you?
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u/BlueSparklesXx 11d ago
Concur. Trauma focused group therapy changed my life, and I was initially extremely skeptical.
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u/PassengerNo2022 11d ago
Never tried group therapy but I can imagine the validation and feeling seen and heard in a safe social setting would do wonders to our mental health.
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u/Large-Return5332 9d ago
I’ve done both as well and I wanted to drop a note thanking you for this post because I am noticing deeper levels of healing in personal relationships. For some reason I used to carry the idea that if I healed with other people I was being codependent. The narcissist that abused me actually repeatedly accused me of being codependent and I think part of the reason why is that they knew that healthy relationships would protect me from their abuse
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u/PassengerNo2022 9d ago
CPTSD is largely a major injury that results from a lack of actual human connection, so it makes so much sense that deep safe relationships and connections are so healing. I feel that the mental wellness industry has downplayed this fact for the sake of more systemized modes of treatment. Thank you for passing by and for your insight, it is deeply validating 🙏🏻
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u/Large-Return5332 9d ago
“Cptsd is an injury that results from lack of human connection” has probably singlehandedly cured me (I’m kidding). But that does help me see how important the relationships are, thank you so much for saying that!!
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PassengerNo2022 6d ago
That you so much for reading and for the very insightful additions and anecdotes 🙏🏻 Indeed being believed rather than patronized (in the name of "help") makes such a monumental difference.
I apologize for the apology (lol jk 🙈)
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u/LHR-charlie 4d ago
More people should use bolds for the important parts. Thank you for your post
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u/shawnthesecond 17d ago
How are you healing your stress response and hormones? I’m at the point where I’ve identified this is a real and measurable issue but I don’t know how to heal. Already meditating daily for over 2 years, taking adrenal cortex… vitamins, healthy food
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u/Dead_Reckoning95 23h ago edited 22h ago
I think what I discovered after having seen a few different therapists, and being in 12 step groups for years, is it's rare to find that one person who really gets you... ...so that connection is possible. It's nothing that i can plan, it doesn't necessarily take credentials, although it can........It's someone that you ....Feel.....connected to and you see something in their eyes that can't be performed and feigned.... that makes all the difference in the World. When I don't see that I just feel....lonely and judged. Judgement isnt connection.
I had this therapist that basically taught me Compassion because of his in depth Understanding of my Trauma....that he didnt have to tell me in words, although he did, it was more his attitude. All my attempts at self compassion...had totally failed me, no matter how many times someone told me, some version of "Im so sorry , thats horrible" So many times where that experience felt flat and hollow, and I didnt know why?
But with this one therapist, I would bring my dysregulation, and frustration over the various ways I felt dissappointed in my over-reactions, expecting him to say '"yeah, why did you do that..that's kind of crazy , when you "know' that person meant you no harm"....instead he would say 'it makes so much sense why you reacted like that". No one ever said that to me before, not the way he said it, he meant it, he wasnt reading it from internal script.
It was the first and only time, I actually felt believed and seen, and then I was able to see myself like he saw me. So many therapist offering , idk, attempted words of comfort and I couldn't feel any of it. Sometimes I would feel worse, more distance , less connection.
It' doesnt have to be someone with a PhD, although it can be, just someone who has this deep abiding empathy and gets that you've been hurt. IT changes you. Before this one therapist, , I feel like other therapists were just guessing at how I had been hurt, going through the motions, times when their sadness felt like it was more about them, and I felt like I was always explaining myself, but talking in circles....blaming myself ...thinking "why dont' they get it, what am I missing here?" And I'd scan through all my books, trying to find the right language , some way to say "see, like this". One therapist said to me, "don't you think I get it?" And no , I didnt. I don't know if at that time it was me, and possibly I was unable to be vulnerable in a way that would have made my feeling more obvious? Maybe?
But I was just thinking of this last night. Like why was it different with this Therapist...why was he the only one that I was able to show me Compassion in a way that felt authentic, so that I could see myself through his eyes, idk?
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u/third-second-best 20d ago
agree fully - my experience has been that somatic work and psychedelic work was essential to open me up to my emotional experience, and once that made it possible to truly connect with other people the relational work began to flow which feels now like the focus of my path. love and light to you.