For those in therapy....

For those of you in therapy, how often do you go, and how long are your sessions? We have a wonderful therapist, but feel like there is just not enough time in sessions to make any progress....we have been reading some great articles on this, but there are mixed opinions. Any thoughts?

I go to therapy once a week for 50 minutes. I often feel like we just start to get to the "meat" of certain topics when time lets up, but I can't afford to spend any longer period of time with her (although now that I have insurance and have met the deductible it's lot easier). I have a hard time opening up to her and I can't purposefully switch alters. Sometimes I feel like if we had more time, then I might be able to actually switch in front of her due to deeper digging. I know when my alters have presented we've been in intense discussions. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe more time wouldn't be helpful. I know when I was seeing a different counselor twice a week I still didn't have many alters coming out (of course that counselor didn't believe DID is real), so I'm not sure that would have made a difference.

I have seen two therapists and two psychiatrists. I still see Tracy every three weeks or so. When I got into her office the first time she was very nice to me. First we spent pretty much the whole first meeting taking down my health history and background on my immediate families health history. Then we took down a list of problems I was having, as far as things like depression, anxiety, energy levels, sleep, ect.. then I brought up the fact that I was lossing time and dissociating. She ask me to try my best to explain what these experiences were like for me. I then admitted to her about possible personalities I have. I explained in detail how I switch and the fact that my husband has been witness to these switches. This was way over our 30 minute session. Our next few sessions were now about my general past. She left it open for me to tell her what I was comfortable with sharing. She did ask questions along the way about how situations affected me then and now. We also made up a verbal goal list. What I wanted to get out of therapy and what I was comfortable to work on. My goals were simple at first. I wanted less anxiety and depression and to learn more about the internal system I have. Jay finally introduced him self to my therapist which went fairly well. She let me pick how often my sessions would be (we started off once a week then a few months later we switched to every other week, now we are every three weeks. Always 30 minute sessions.) I keep track of situation were I dissociate or switch that have any relevance to my therapy. We have made plans on how I can reduce stress in my life and options on what to do if I ever feel overwhelmed. She was a novice with D.I.D. before I met her (basically she only knew the clinical symptoms of the disorder and nothing more.) She now is learning by reading books I have borrowed and suggested to her and also websites and forums. We decided to try medications that would help with anxiety so I met with a psychiatrist and Tracy sat in with me. Unfortunately he was a non-believer of D.I.D. and I felt he couldn't help me so I discontinued my sessions with him. I saw another psychiatrist in another town. He diagnosed me with D.I.D., PTSD, and seizures (partial complexed) I had several tests done like blood tests, MRI and whatnots. I then continued with my new medication for seizures and every three weeks with Tracy.

I used to see mine for 50 minutes once a week, but he decided I needed more support and was worried enough to make it 2-3 times a week for an hour a time. Is there anyway you could up the time you spend with your therapist?

When I started, it was for unrelated stuff, and after the first session he said, every two to three weeks. After my second session, he said we should be meeting every week and already said he thought I was highly dissociative or had dissociated a lot of stuff (at the time, he thought mostly anger) from my past. Six months in, it got hard for me to make it a week, but my therapist is only in my area two days a week, so he offered me a Friday phone call a few months ago and we've been doing that since, to manage the separation anxiety for the kiddos. We used to go over our hour pretty consistently, but that was causing some instability, because kiddos were acting out (flooding me with affect and unsafe thoughts) when they thought that would get them to be able to stay longer. Now, we're almost always about 60-70 minutes, though our last phone call went longer. I'm not the only client he does this with. He pretty regularly runs late to bring things to a concluded places. He tried for months with me to give me that sort of conclusion, but the attachment stuff makes it nearly impossible.

I think if I could choose my "ideal" (what would feel most manageable to me), it would be either three 50-60 minute sessions or two 90 minute sessions per week. I'm pretty sure my therapist is not willing/able to offer me that. The one time I did both Monday and Tuesday session, his boundary was to trade my Friday phone session unless I was really overwhelmed by then. I was thinking if I could do his first Monday morning session, his last Tuesday night session and then my Friday phone call, that would make for a very smooth week. As it is, I have trouble with early sessions, because it's hard to come home and be mom after a session. However, I think if everyone knew they would get to come back in a day-and-a-half, it wouldn't be so bad...or so they tell me. Also, it would mean that we could spend the Monday session doing catch up on "today" stuff if everyone cooperates (how my week is going, current issues with my family or my husband's sleep condition, etc.) and then have all of the Tuesday session to focus on the past stuff that comes up. Having only one hour every 3.5 days makes it really hard for the kiddos to remember he exists and is there for us in between. They ask me to text him all the time to just stay connected. Also, there is so much clamoring to get to him when we're there that we end up overwhelmed, stuck in a freeze, and no one gets heard for quite a while. Then it is over just as things are starting to surface. However, that's only if we can find a way for insurance to pay, because I'm out of pocket right now and that would be over $625 every two weeks just for me, with a discount ($750 if you include my husband's bi-weekly session). There is just no way we can afford that. We're already drowning in debt from how much I currently see him. Stupid attachment issues!!!

hey, we've been going for 8 months now...
started out being once a week for the usual 50 mins,but like you, it wasn't long enough. plus then we started doing this round table thing where the T talks to everyone and that takes no less than an hour in itself... Then the protector comes out and blocks everyone so she goes way overtime... she we talked it all over with her and now we do 1 week of 50 mins (sometimes up to 1.5 hrs if she has the time) and the other week is no less than 2.5- 3 hours...

its costing me an arm and a leg and everything i make at work is going to T lately... havent saved anything in almost 8 months . but its worth it.and shes giving me a discounted rate and we're doing everything to get the max amount of medicare rebates we're entitled to each year which always helps... (and lets face it, i'll probably be paying so much money to my T that i'll be putting her daughter through uni! )

Try talking to your T and see if they can schedule more time for you.

Also, on the disscussing Dissociation blog, theres a page with your ideal treatment plan, i copied this and filled it in with alot of time and thought and then showed my T and it made everything SOOOO much easier to tell her that we needed more time. Otherwise i was too scared..lol heres the link:
http://discussingdissociation.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/what-would-your-perfect-treatment-plan-look-like/

hope this helps.
H.

weeble wrote:shes giving me a discounted rate and we're doing everything to get the max amount of medicare rebates we're entitled to each year which always helps...

If you take your receipts from the gap payment into Medicare you should be able to make it to the Medicare Safety Net amount and from there on when you take your receipts from the gap payment into medicare you get something like 80% of the amount back again. Also I don't know how much you are working, but if you are earning under a certain amount you can go to Centrelink and get a Health Care Card (HCC). If you have a HCC then the amount of money that you need to pay for therapy before getting to the Safety Net drastically reduces. This has meant I have had to pay about $600 for therapy out-of-pocket for this year and now, when I pay my gap to my therapist I get the receipt, take it to medicare and get 80% of the gap payment back again. It makes it much more affordable...

In answer to the actual question of the thread...

We go to therapy twice per week, 45min sessions each time. It seems about right for us. Sometimes it feels too short if we want to talk about something really heavy. But on the other hand it helps us to not over do it and end up retraumatized. Sometimes it only just feels like enough to keep us stable. I think maybe if it was 1 hour twice per week then that would be optimal but I know my therapist has time constraints so that is not possible. I'm just grateful we can go twice a week. We end up too unstable if it is less than that.

I use to go to therapy often years back. now I'm a recluse

thanks salted lipstick,

yeah im still running on the medicare rebates for a few more sessions. and the medicare lady just told me about the safety net... i had no idea! lol
I used to be on a health-care card but because i'm engaged they're going to take into account the fiance's grosse income as my own so we are waaay over the limit. But me myself, i'm waay under the limit...

Thanks for the ideas though, if the medicare lady hadn't told me about the safety net i would never have known!