Does Containment Ever Make Things Worse?

birdsong87 wrote:"...a key to successful trauma work is pendulation. every kind of progress costs stability. but without it we are just stable in our stuck-ness. A good T will swing back and forth between progress and stabilisation, using containment sometimes, but also pulling things out to look at them at other times.

We have not heard of pendulation but it sounds like it makes sense, like switching between Stage 1 and Stage 2 [and back when needed] of our trauma therapy.

birdsong87 wrote:"
"...every kind of progress costs stability."

this reminds me of a closed system

I've found that sometimes when everything falls apart, a door swings open.

After I had fallen as far as I could go, I found myself climbing a ladder to the top. Change was easier. There was nothing to lose. All the ordinary restraints, all the ordinary excuses, all the 'stuckedness' was gone.

I don't want to get to that low point again but need to be careful not to let my desire to preserve what I have, keep me from moving forward. I have found most moving forward to be painful and somewhat destabilizing - for me that is just the way it is.

puppieskittens wrote:I don't want to get to that low point again but need to be careful not to let my desire to preserve what I have, keep me from moving forward.

Yes. That's a big challenge for us.

Yet some of us are not ready to let go. Too many conflicting needs and feelings.

MDs

I am older than you and feel the pressure of time - that keeps me moving.