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The "Retraumatizing" Myth:
Paralleling the "primal scream" myth is a related one that has to do with affect (emotion) intensity and affect modulation. This myth states that due to the intensity levels that the primal therapeutic process hits at times, clients are overwhelmed and regressed too deeply for integration of traumatic material that has surfaced. In short, the myth states that primal therapy regresses too intensely and deeply and thus leaves the client "retraumatized".
While this may have had some truth to it in its earliest days, modern primal therapy is practiced with a deliberation and gentleness that is carefully modulated so that a client does not go too deeply too fast. Also, an emphasis on cognitive integration throughout the session and particularly at the end of each session is paramount. Once again, the primal process, similar to any good experiential therapy, has matured over the years and has developed natural therapeutic "governors" that ensure integration and not just cathartic expression for "expression" sake.
One of the best examples of the same type of phenomenon occurring was the evolution of Gestalt Therapy. The "rap" on Gestalt was by many mental health professionals who felt that the way the therapy was originally practiced was "too confrontational" or potentially "too harmful" to clients as it was "too intense". Over the years, Gestalt Therapy has evolved and the way it is practiced has become more precise and modulated while still retaining the vitality and healing value of its confrontational style and intensity. Literally, the same process has occurred in Primal Therapy as well. Any excesses of its early applications have been altered and the Primal therapeutic process, similar to Gestalt, has self-corrected and is extraordinarily precise and modulated as practiced today.
If the therapist has had the proper training, the primal process is no more capable of "retraumatizing" than any of the other current trauma or body-centered psychotherapies. In fact, due to their respect for, and knowledge of, the levels and degrees of intensity, primal therapists may actually be less prone to overloading the client to the point of non-integration or retraumatization than therapists from other trauma modalities. In Primal terms, it is essential for beginning client's to learn internal "tracking" or the capacity to feel one's sensations or to sense one's body cues. This is a process that cannot be rushed as the client is learning how to trust their internal "radar" and what and how much their bodies are implicitly revealing. Of course, as a client advances, on-going cognitive integration of each cathartic expression is absolutely critical to resolving trauma.
Also, the ability of the therapist to "read" where a client is at and to" hold the safety" or what has come to be called "the therapeutic container" is only possible to the degree that the therapist has done his or her own personal growth work. A therapist's ability to provide safety to feel what needs to be felt and to hold the "Container" is directly correlated to how deep the counselor has gone in their own therapeutic process. Otherwise, a client's early feelings and history will be unrecognizable and the therapist will feel overwhelmed, confused, and fearful of any intensity or depth that she or he has not been to themselves. When treating trauma, these issues for therapists are all too common as many therapists are themselves afraid of intensity and pain. These unresolved issues and fears are routinely overlooked and minimized by far too many mental health professionals resulting in profound damage to clients, all in the name of "safe" therapy.
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