Posted by Dinah on October 13, 2013, at 8:34:17
In reply to Re: being challenged in therapy, posted by baseball55 on October 12, 2013, at 19:56:35
> After working with my p-doc, I began working with a DBT therapist. This is so much more helpful than CBT. It's less about identifying negative thoughts and more about learning to accept and learn to regulate negative emotions. The emphasis is on learning to be mindful and practice self-compassion. Which isn't so different, actually, from what my p-doc always said about reparenting myself.
I like the way you put this. I hadn't quite thought of it in those terms.
I think it puts the finger on why CBT annoyed me so much. First, it assumed that feelings were a product of thoughts in the moments, while I knew instinctively what scientists say about the amygdala. Second, it annoys me no end to tell myself things I don't believe. Or even to tell myself things I do believe but don't seem to make any difference.
So I don't respond overly well to CBT even for emetophobia. Yes of course I know it won't hurt me, aside from the pain of the panic. I know the panic won't kill me. That it will just be unpleasant for a period of time. If knowing that would cure me, I wouldn't *have* emetophobia.
It lifted a lot of my resentment when my therapist thought it not unlikely that even after exposure therapy, my phobia won't miraculously go away - especially in situations where I feel trapped. Shifting the focus to how I could deal with how I might very likely feel was far more helpful.
poster:Dinah
thread:1052045
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20130930/msgs/1052115.html