Why therapy doesn't work for Trauma, PTSD, CPTSD

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I'm Spira and I teach yoga, self care, and trauma healing. I LOVE BEGINNERS, but I can challenge more advanced students as well.
ALL are welcomed here. All bodies and all abilities. Practicing yoga helps me to feel strong, healthy, and happy! Come and practice with me! You can start anytime.
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Spira Yoga Shala is a tiny yoga “home” based in Cambridge, MA (currently closed due to Covid). With emphasis on mind body medicine, Spira Yoga practices mindful and reflexive yoga to promote both physical and mental well-being. We use neuroscience and evidence-based practices to educate and connect with our community.
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[@emmalouie1663]

Being rich helps. Rich people can always try as many services as they can afford until something works. With poor people you're just screwed over your entire life.

[@tinyyogini]

This is the sad truth, unfortunately.

[@AmidalaEmma]

Hahaha yeah I’m crying inside

[@JL-kk9hl]

The good news is that unlike many things in life, one's financial status can change

[@emmalouie1663]

@@JL-kk9hl Not really. Most people I know have a pretty predictable financial status.

[@JL-kk9hl]

@@emmalouie1663 Unlike, say, race, yes, financial status CAN change, even if it rarely does. It's not an immutable characteristic, although yes, it's unlikely for many.

[@et1016]

As a therapist, I affirm that everything you are saying is absolutely correct. Therapy often does more harm than good.

[@tinyyogini]

Thanks for this. I applaud you for your work. ❤️ I’m happy to share I finally found an excellent trauma therapist who specializes in IFS. We just started and I’m loving it so far!

[@skylinefever]

This is why I call therapy another arm of the motivational bullshit coach industry.

[@et1016]

@@skylinefever absolutely!!

[@valerievaleri]

This is really solid advice. Thank you. I have been avoiding talk therapy as I find it triggering, taking me days, sometimes weeks to recover. I have also just had some really bad therapists. I like how you don't talk about your trauma with your therapist, you just work on regulation skills. I will definitely reschedule therapy now and make a boundary about not talking about trauma. I also like how you said one needs to work in the body, then the mind to recover. Our society tends to see it as the other way around.

[@tinyyogini]

You're welcome! You might find it easier to talk about your trauma after getting your body calms down. :)

[@crystald3655]

Good luck finding one that won't drop you for having boundaries and enforcing them "against them".

[@John-wm9gl]

@@crystald3655 oh wow, sooooo much this! most of them are cluster b control freaks that take joy in watching someone slowly unravel, all while paying them money to make it happen. cbt practicioners are the worst, it is literally "you're depressed because you're thinking depressed thoughts, $500 please."

[@user-uo5jl4yr6m]

Absolutely love how Informative this is!! I’ve been in and out of therapy for years and have always been concerned that there is an issue with me which is why it was never working for me. Turns out I was never healed from my CPTSD and therapy or meds never helped but usually stuck me in this moment of frenzy and numbness. I agree 100% with this video, I’m going to begin focusing on my physical health and meditation to calm myself!! This was a lovely video :)

[@tinyyogini]

Oh, I'm so glad!! This is exactly why I make these videos. No one told me this! LOL. Best of luck to you!

[@jcleichtnam8288]

I’m a combat veteran with childhood trauma and I started therapy when I was 44 years old and I didn’t want to feel like I was wasting my psychologist time so every session I did hard work talked about some really deep things that I had once compartmentalized and I thought I was doing my self justice in the sense that this hard work will pay off. I had a very sweet intelligent psychologist and I remember I kept explaining to her that days prior to our sessions with which were weekly and days after our session which overtime pretty much was all the time cause I was going once a week I was in a very dangerous mental state being exposed to this huge trigger which was my therapy sessions once I took control of the direction and my boundaries and therapy I no longer struggle like I used to just like with alcohol AA was not a good choice for me. Sitting around other alcoholics for an hour talking about alcohol was very counterproductive to my well-being. CPTSD Is uncharted territory for a lot of therapist . For the last six years I’ve seen a psychologist once a week for an hour and I can say without any wavering that the most valuable information, insight and path to wellness i found through KZbin , Quora, Reddit and other platforms. Stay well friends!

[@tinyyogini]

Thank you so much for sharing this!! I truly value your input. It’s very frustrating when we know more about trauma than some therapists. I had to explain so many things to my last one and received no benefits. It’s sooooo hard to find a good, knowledgeable specialist. As you wrote, I’ve learned more from books and KZbin than anywhere else!

[@jcleichtnam8288]

@@tinyyogini thank you for doing what you do!

[@theflittingbutterfly]

I am already on KZbin, quora and reddit. Would like to ask about other platforms as I am trying to collect as much information as possible around healing from ctpsd . Thanks

[@theasianwitch]

Thank you for sharing this Spira, I totally agree. I am a C-PTSD survivor and have been healing in leaps and bounds through Eastern healing such as acupuncture, bodywork, somatics, yoga, meditation and Eastern philosophies like Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, grief work, poetry, inner child and shadow work, self-help audiobooks, and Earth-based healing such as cooking, farming, and herbalism. Indigenous societies know how to heal and usually in community, it is this system that we're living in that is making us sick.

[@tinyyogini]

This is BEAUTIFUL!! Thank you so much for sharing. Indeed, we are sorely missing community.

[@Ry-iz9bc]

I’m still feeling the effects from a bad therapy experience. I had no idea how talk therapy could literally alter a persons nervous system.

[@tinyyogini]

Ugh, I’m so sorry. ❤️

[@crystald3655]

Yeah talk therapy can be traumatizing.

[@zakiyyafarrakhan1098]

👏👏👏. She knows her stuff, Medication is a crutch and I am against it! My Nervous System is Damaged, suffering with Connective Tissue Disease, Fibromyalgia doesn’t help either, it’s just a big rollercoaster ride that I fight to shake everyday.

[@tinyyogini]

Hey love, check out my video on TRE. I have myofascial pain syndrome and it’s helped a lot with that. 🙏🏼

[@iamaliveyoucantstopnow]

Therapy retraumtised me because most therapists are not trained to help people with trauma.

[@tinyyogini]

I’m so sorry to hear it. I can tell you that finding a really good trauma therapist is worth it, though. You have to know what to ask and what modalities you’re looking for. Don’t give up!

[@aqadion]

explains why i feel after therapy always worse. and especially before that. I have really bad mood.

[@vikvegas8593]

I agree. You can't think or talk or drink your way out of it. It just makes things even worse. I was stuck for 3 years talking and crying to anyone who would listen and it didnt do a damn thing. So now I just fake it. I train for 2 hours a day. I am looking for a job. I walk for miles if i have to. I still dont socialize but i do feel better than I was when I was drunk in a room trying to talk about what happened.

[@tinyyogini]

We still need treatment, however. Ignoring your trauma will also not make it go away. There are lots of options these days besides talk therapy. That’s what my videos are about.

[@Jane-mb8jj]

I feel so seen! Great video!

[@brittasings]

Thank you for this!

[@coling9390]

I go to group talk therapy with other survivors of abuse. I find it to be very heplful

[@tinyyogini]

Thank you so much for sharing this!! Great suggestion!!

[@lemonita347]

I wish my doctor understood this.

[@tinyyogini]

As long as you have a good trauma therapist, you’re good. It’s just regular talk therapy that doesn’t do much.

[@darkacademia9667]

Great video!

[@robertah2353]

Spot on!

[@jessiccaangelov5517]

Thank you!

[@emmabobby3666]

But you don't want to just be worn out though. You want to be able to connect to the emotions that come up and find healthy ways to deal with them. Also if you tend to disconnect a lot, you want someone who will guide you on how to reconnect safely and witness, guide and validate what you are going through as you reconnect. It isn't something you can do without help. In CPTSD especially, you were often hurt through relationship and it it aslo through relationship that you will heal. A therapist is a safe relationship that has plenty of experience in guiding people through the fog, the pain, the dissociation and the dysregulation. I don't think dissing that (i mean the title of the video alone is a lot) is a helpful thing.

[@crystald3655]

A therapist has never been a safe relationship for me they are manipulative and abusive and put blame on victims not abusers and refuse to give useful coping tools and instead insist on talking about my trauma and when I say no they end everything saying they can't help me. If I lay out boundaries or let them know something was triggering to me they said or did they invalidate and belittle then abandon me and you can forget about actively participating and choosing your care they chose and if you don't like it bye girl bye all therapists care about is a paycheck from the people the abuse and retrumatize they're emotional sadists that prey on the most vernable under the guise of helping them get better it's disgusting. Someone with cptsd CAN help and heal themselves as I'm doing so no abusive fake professionals required.

[@emmabobby3666]

@@crystald3655 Whao! I am so sorry you went through that! Some people are just in the wrong professions. I had some bad experiences with therapists too, there was even quite a bit of gaslighting and projection in a couple. A couple of other were just using there position for strange propaganda and i have seen some who were very incompetent and actually needed me to comfort them. I find it very difficult to trust therapists now. But i still really need to find one that is capable because part of my CPTSD is the violent internalised abuse and self denying. I have been diagnosed with CPTSD 6 months ago and still most of the time, i find it close to impossible to recognise it as being real. All that my inner dialogue says is "you are too sensitive! You lie! It wasn't that bad! You were the problem! You should be punished!" and that is the part i don't think i could get out of without the help and guidance of a therapist. I need to find a sense of legitimacy and safety and learn to stop the internalised gaslighting. I don't know how to do this without help and therapists are the best i have for now. I wish you all the best on your journey to recovery and hope that you never again find yourself being harmed and manipulated. Take care

[@tinyyogini]

I really appreciate your comment. You describe the perfect ideal which I fear doesn’t exist. I have put many years into therapy and as I state clearly in the video, I still attend. I’m still looking and hoping to find someone who knows what they’re doing. I’ve been harmed by therapists who claimed to know about trauma. My last therapist openly acknowledged that I knew more about trauma than she did. I made zero progress with her but it was nice to see someone regularly. 😂 In the video, I refer to therapists like these, who rely on talk therapy and CBT and don’t provide what you’ve described in your comment. If I can find that, I’d be thrilled! So please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. I acknowledged the nuance in my vid.

[@crystald3655]

@@emmabobby3666 I am the same what has helped mei is to counter the negative thoughts. It's kinda funny the way I do it because I say in my head "objection! I do not deserve to be punished this way." or whatever makes sense for the negative thoughts. It takes a while but it does help as your mind starts to believe what it's being told by you instead of what your abuser programed you to believe.

[@clarnicpsu05]

How do your u find a trauma therapist? I can never seem to find one to help me heal.

[@tinyyogini]

Depends on where you live. If you have good healthcare around you, just do a google search. There may also be therapists that will take online clients. Again, google search.

[@sparksoflife101]

Does breathwork count ?I do that with my therapist as well as therapy to shift my mindset

[@tinyyogini]

Breathwork is great as long as it's comfortable for you. This video is about talk therapy, not somatic therapies. Breathwork is a somatic modality.

[@Chill-mm4pn]

Talking about trauma has helped me but medication has been immensely helpful for my anxiety, depression and PTSD. I take Sertraline so it really varies from person to person. I take it daily and it's needed for me to function. That doesn't mean that I don't have bad mental health days though.

[@tinyyogini]

I’m so glad it works for you! It didn’t work for my depression, sadly, but it def had fewer side effects than many others. 🙏🏼

[@normanreichwald6158]

I believe EMDR and mindfulness training are forms of therapy. I would be cautious to say that dancing is a better treatment for trauma than psychotherapy.

[@tinyyogini]

I’m specifically talking about talk therapy. Thought I made that clear.

[@AmidalaEmma]

Does yoga help for c-ptsd or really just ptsd?

[@tinyyogini]

Both. 🙏🏼

[@kjbrocky]

Is it good to cry and express/release your emotions?

[@tinyyogini]

Always.

[@normanreichwald6158]

That is what I call a good cry. Recurrent crying as a symptom of depression is what I call a bad cry. So, not all cries are good cries. As a therapist, to me, the goal is not to stop crying but to have good cries. My wife says if you didn't cry in therapy, you didn't get your money's worth. Good crying is the outward expression of processing the emotions. You can't just make a person cry and expect that makes them better. You guide them to identify their emotions, identify the memories, experiences, beliefs about and interpretations of those experiences, re-evaluate those interpretations (e.g. self-blame), and accept and make peace with those feelings. Then, the crying is the outward expression of all that. It sounds like a lot of people who had bad experiences with therapy were made to cry but were not aided in processing things. No one needs more bad cries.

[@cybercab]

lol. I’m listening to this while walking

[@Dman9fp]

You don't function better by digging the hole deeper. Simple as that. Such a shame sometimes the most simple things in life are the Hardest to accept (Not saying to ignore the source of pain. But come to accept it, and move on with life. All too common with rejection for instance, we feel we Must get in the head of the other person- as if they are the most righteous/ ideal person. But most everyone is not completely broken and not perfect. Sometimes its just a mismatch, and tragic we ever / sometimes put them on a pedestal. Just one example

[@77NICKSAL]

8:05

[@77NICKSAL]

4:03

[@77NICKSAL]

7:52

[@prophetwizdum2009]

All these medications create a dependency and cause more damage than good, sometimes you need to exercise and talk to a friend rather than be reliant on meds, but no one wants to hear that…

[@tinyyogini]

That may be true for some but it’s also true that many ppl have tried exercise and have great support systems and still struggle. Your comment implies that no one has ever tried that before. It’s a bit reductive, no?

[@rameshageo]

8.15 min solutions for trauma ..

[@prophetwizdum2009]

Gosh you’re really good looking 👀

[@tinyyogini]

What is the point of this comment on my professional work? Seems irrelevant.