Check out Susan’s Special Events for 2 exciting offerings, one next weekend with Dr. Robin L. Kay on “Thwarting the Transmission of Trauma with Deep Affective Processing.” Not too late to register!

I really like hearing from fellow therapists who invite feedback on compelling issues, such as this one: “My referrals have increased dramatically since doing this (ISTDP, an intensive experiential, emotion-focused dynamic therapy) so something is going right.  However, I feel drained, exhausted, stressed and more porous to all my patients’ distress.”

This is naturally the case. When I began learning ISTDP, it began to feel like training to become a surgeon (with the patient/client as part of the team)…in the sense that I was being handed very powerful tools that could bring about remarkable healing and in some cases, save lives. As thrilling as it was to be acquiring these skills, it was simultaneously terrifying. Some may say this is an overstatement, but I am speaking for myself. A misstep or misalliance could have real consequences such as wounding or alienating a valued client. A failure to intervene could also have consequences, an ineffective treatment. All therapies carry some of these risks, but ISTDP seemed to heighten them…while also holding out the possibility of greater reward.

Once in my youth, I was on an island in the Sacramento River delta that had some canoes along the shore. A friend and myself foolishly thought we could drift a little way along the edge of the island even though we had no paddles!!! We were holding on to branches and thought we could just jump out at any time. We hadn’t foreseen that we would in minutes be in the midst of swirling, fierce currents beneath the calm river, and our little canoe was rapidly swept far from the shore beyond our control. Had there not been others who were able to rescue us, I might not be writing this blog.

If you look at my website, you will see the words “Journey to the Core.” Our core emotions, especially when linked to excruciating traumatic experiences, can be very akin to those powerful, wild river currents. Human emotions can howl and rip apart and also fiercely embrace. They can be so BIG that grown-ups as well as children shrink from them. And if we’re going to enter that territory beyond the defenses, we had better have our paddles and know how to use them!

The ISTDP therapist deals with emotional hurricanes, including amazingly touching moments, every day, even every hour. A colleague called the training “labor intensive.” A trainee told me she couldn’t imagine dealing with this level of intensity on a regular basis. Patients/clients routinely say, “How do you do this?” Understandable… we are the trauma team rushing into a building that everyone else is trying to escape.

So, what can I say to my challenged colleague? Obviously, you are not alone in what you are experiencing! All of us pass through the period where we are “drained, exhausted, stressed and more porous to all my patients’ distress,” if we are dedicated ISTDP therapists. And yes, the waters get very rocky until we learn how to maneuver our paddles, i.e. recognize the patient’s fragile structures and know when there is enough ego strength (“restructured defense and anxiety”) before venturing into the open sea of feeling.

Just be kind to yourself, dear therapist, and go slowly with yourself as well as your patient. Practice due diligence as you build your skills. Get lots of support, breathe, watch your own anxiety levels and heed them (i.e. track your own physiological events) and slow down when you need to. Restore yourself in the many ways that can work for you. And APPRECIATE your courage and dedication as a member of a specialized trauma team.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 10th, 2010 at 11:06 am and is filed under Conference, Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.