Emotional Processing of Traumatic Emotions and Early Experiences Using the Therapeutic Letters, Role Playing and Imagination in Borderline and Other Difficult Patients

Abstract

In many patients cognitivereconstruction helps to understand their problems in life and symptoms of stressor psychiatric disorders. Change in the thoughts and beliefs help them to feelbetter. But there are many patients who suffer with strong traumaticexperiences deep in their mind and typically dissociate them or want to avoidthem voluntarily. There is typical for patients suffering with dissociativedisorders, borderline personality disorder and many people with variouspsychiatric disorders who were abused in childhood. The processing of thetraumatic emotions from childhood can be helpful in the treatment of thesepatients. For the help is important: a) Understanding what washappen in childhood b) Making clear of repeatedfigures of maladaptive behaviors, mostly in interpersonal relations b) Making a connectionbetween childhood experiences and here and now emotional reactions on varioustriggers c) Experiencing repeatedlythe traumatic memories and elaborate them with imaginal coping. We describe: - how to map and elaborate emotional schemas - Socratic questioning with the patients with traumatic memories - how to work with traumatic experiences from childhood in borderlinepersonality disorder.