Bonnie Burton is a trauma survivor who writes about therapy from the inside. As a gifted writer, she conveys some essential truths about the process of therapy, and shatters some stereotypes along the way. Her experiences with good therapists and not-so-good therapists are essential reading for client and therapist alike.
Ms. Burton's own experience of therapy convinces her, for example, that trauma survivors don't always make the best trauma therapists. This is especially true if they never completed their own therapy. She has seen them react with fear and dissociation in response to traumatic material or negative emotions expressed in a session.
While we don't learn who her current therapist is, it is clear that they are working together toward healing. She writes with clarity and maturity; and without a chip on her shoulder. It is a privilege to publish an article from a guest author who is such an articulate therapy client. This article will help me be a better therapist.
Why do some people develop post-traumatic stress disorder after a trauma and others remain symptom free? We are still trying to understand resilience, one characteristic of