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Different therapy approaches for trauma

creative_writerSenior Contributor24 Jan 2026, 5:05 pm AEDT

Different therapy approaches for trauma

I had multiple mental illnesses, one of my diagnoses is cptsd. Right now I’ve been doing more behavioural therapy and my current psych focuses more on exposure therapy. I feel like I haven’t been able to get far, it’s not that it hasn’t helped, but I feel like I need a different approach. I find it super difficult to talk about trauma details, I’ve tried it before and ended up retraumatised. I don’t think exposure therapy is right for me. I’ve tried a few EMDR sessions in the past which helped, I have been contemplating whether I should revisit it. I would need to get referred to another psych for EMDR.

I have also considered art therapy (which is also not a focal point for my current psych). Sometimes I don’t have the words to describe the pain that is stuck within me. I want to heal. I struggle with somatic flashbacks and I’ve had to disconnect from my body in order to feel safe. I don’t always notice the discomfort in my body until much later. I also get lots of intrusive thoughts and memories. I think it’s been feeding my OCD thoughts. I also have bipolar and trauma isn’t helping with stability since so much is suppressed. The bipolar also makes it worse.

I’m open to hear about what others have found helpful and hear about experiences of different therapy modalities.

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In response to: Different therapy approaches for trauma

Cooked_CookieCasual Contributor31 Jan 2026, 1:54 am AEDT

Re: Different therapy approaches for trauma

Seeing my GP (although sounding obvious now) I hadn't considered. Thank you. I also read the first link and think I might revisit PTSD with a psychologist

In response to: Different therapy approaches for trauma

ChasingsunsetsSenior Contributor01 Feb 2026, 2:17 am AEDT

Re: Different therapy approaches for trauma

Hiya @creative_writer, sorry for the delay in response somehow I really managed to mess with my routine of how I go through posts and now I am doing it different again somehow 🤭🤯, might be awhile before I am back to normal with posting so very sorry in advance 😜.

I have really loved reading through this thread- Thankyou for creating it. I am interested again if anything has come up for you, I know I asked you that a bit ago so wanted to re check in as you mentioned you were going to chat with your psych, wonder if you have had the chance yet? 😊

I am not actually too savvy with different therapies actually *sorry (was too unwell to start any really I think but I am sure there was different therapy modalities used at times and I probably just wasn’t aware back then)

I know you said you have tried emdr and perhaps thinking something different to emdr? Have I got that right? Definitely nothing wrong with that. However something that isn’t so ‘trauma talk heavy’ emdr keeps coming up at me, from my brief reading it appears to be that, not needing to tell your whole story, don’t have to talk through it verbally etc. However I recall needs a good lot of work pre- re building blocks so if stuff does come up out of session it can be managed with different skills learnt a long the way etc and that you feel more comfortable.

I definitely feel you re concern stuff that could come up out of session so do wonder where you are sitting with things as getting triggered is heavy to sit with esp when it’s going against the grain of ‘getting better’ in some ways, I personally have found it confusing sometimes re getting triggered and feeling like I may not be getting better even though that’s my whole intention, then I ask myself, then what? But triggering that you can cope with is a real win right? 😊

I often wonder if I need to spend more time building foundations, I know for me I need to learn more ways of coping, better ways of increasing my tolerance to distress etc. I know my journey isn’t going to be fast through this (my very over and under active nervous system) but slow and steady can also win the race too right? 🐢, I hope so🙏. I do love turtles actually so this is just so perfect right now 🌻😊

I wonder what you have been thinking about, definitely plenty of therapy modalities out there. Very interested to hear where you are at with things 🙏

@AlwaysMyself

In response to: Re: Different therapy approaches for trauma

creative_writerSenior Contributor01 Feb 2026, 3:29 pm AEDT

Re: Different therapy approaches for trauma

@Chasingsunsets no need to apologise, I hope you are doing better 💖

The first step for me would be stabilising. My psych also agrees that doing less talk heavy work might be better, we were looking at an EMDR therapist. You don’t need to do as heavy talking with EMDR compared to exposure. My current psych does more exposure. It might be a while till I can actually do EMDR stuff. I need to work on the stability side of things and building a foundation for safer EMDR sessions. My window of tolerance has been super small lately. I totally get you on going slowly. It is better to be a turtle. Its been lovely to get your insights 💖

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