Feeling worse after doing compassionate enquiry (Gabor mate)

His therapy caused me a lot of mental health problems.

I bought his book, watched the YouTube videos etc.

I saw 2 therapists, connected to all my emotions, then I started to go downhill quite fast, my anxiety seemed to double overnight and I went downhill fast.

I told the therapist and he seemed to pull away

Is this common, if so what can I do? There's not a lot of support on their website

 

Hello! I’m not familiar with Compassionate Inquiry specifically, but I am familiar with feeling a bit worse -- like an uptick in anxiety -- when doing deeper emotional work. This is actually quite common.

With that in mind, my advice is to slow things down for now and really, really focus on soothing yourself. I’m not sure how quickly you dove into the emotional inquiry, but it can take some time for the mind and body to settle after touching on feelings that may be unfamiliar or have been pushed down for a long time.

Do things that help you feel calm, safe, and grounded. By giving yourself that kind of care, you’re helping your mind and body gently process what’s been coming up.

Wishing you the best of luck.

 

Hola. Si empezaste a investigar sobre la SMT y a ver videos, también es posible que el aumento de tu ansiedad sea el llamado síntoma imperativo. En otras palabras, mucha gente dice que los síntomas suelen empeorar al principio. Es como si el cerebro se resistiera a un patrón al que ya estaba acostumbrado. De hecho, a mí también me pasó.

 

Although a number of people have mentioned on these forums that Gabor Mate's work has chimed with them in one way or another, 'compassionate enquiry', isn't something I've ever seen discussed on these forums (and a quick search that I did of the forums seems to confirm that).

 

The feelings didn't have some big impact on me, it was a few months ago now, it's not like I'm processing some deep emotions I uncovered, it just made my anxiety much worse

Nothing new came up

 

I understand. Is this the only thing you have tried?

 

No, I've tried dozens of therapies, I'm able to connect to my emotions but it's always done more harm than good.

I remember doing faster eft about ten years ago and they nearly finished me off

 

There’s a lot more to this than just repressed emotions. Maybe there’s something bigger picture that’s off? Yeah emotions or trauma could be what kicks off chronic symptoms or primes us for them, but we can easily keep them going by how we treat ourselves, how we live, what we engage in, how we react to the symptoms, thoughts patterns etc.

 

Dan Buglio did a video recently that said it may start with repressed emotions, but that may not be the reason you are stuck there. Pretty much what @Rabscuttle said.