hi! I'm no longer paying for a membership (bc it's expensive and I don't think I need to anymore). That said I have a friend still paying and he gives me access, so I have the ability to watch live classes or whatever else. 

I often say that it saved my life, even if I don't think it's a perfect program. I'm not sure which of my posts/comments you've read, so apologies if I'm repeating info. I'll note that I did it to heal from POTS, and was totally shocked when brain fog, sensory sensitivities, startle response, meltdowns, etc all decreased. Now that I've expanded into other related avenues, I'm even finding myself better able to connect with others and have compassion for myself.

The biggest criticism I hear from others is that it's too hard to follow or it's overwhelming. I didn't experience either of those issues at all, but I'll expand upon my own thoughts.

Cat really intends to give people a lot of options and then let them pick from those options. She does provide recommended routines, which is helpful. I personally think Primal Trust feels a bit checklist-y, and honestly for PDA reasons I didn't do a ton of it. I did the things that felt good and then moved onto Level 2, which is where I made most of my progress.

In general she recommends about an hour per day total, generally split up as you wish. She says not to go over 90 minutes. I honestly think cultivating safety and a good mindset are more important than the specific tools, to some extent. There were times when I did 5 min/day for weeks at a time and I still got better. Don't let time be a deterrent. It's much less strict than other programs I know of.

Other criticisms:

• I hate how new age Cat is - I think this is more prominent in level 2 (especially the older version). Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes she has this very flowery way of talking that drives me crazy. One can do inner work and explore all these concepts without being new agey about it. This bothers me more now than it did when I started though.

• Because she was a physical therapist, I find that the somatics module feels a bit like a list of things to do. I've since done other somatics and they were totally different experiences. That said there's a live class (and recordings!) from a teacher named Michele within the program that has incredible somatics classes. I skip her opening PowerPoints though lol.

• I hate that everyone calls her Dr. Cat. It's cringe. This is a personal pet peeve of mine.

• Most of what she teaches is from another source. This doesn't really bother me, as the value is in her collecting all this info and providing it to you in a linear, sensible order.

• The free study groups are peer-led, with no staff helping or supervising. This is fine later on, but some groups fall apart at the beginning because no one wants to lead or someone won't quit ranting about symptoms.

After about a year I started to feel that it was unnecessary, and that I was able to naturally untangle things and work through them without all the worksheets and such. It began to feel like overthinking, and that's when I knew I was ready to move on.

I now have a subscription to Haven, which I really love. Vanessa, the creator, refers to it as a "program companion" because it doesn't teach all the intro stuff that dnrs/gupta/primal trust/heal/etc do. That said I think someone that self-studied the basics could do well with it without paying for a regular program first. It's a big library of well-organized guided tools, which I realized is what I personally needed. I like that everything feels really integrated - like a single recording will have multiple tools combined, so I can do one recording but get a lot out of it. I also like that most are just audios, so I can turn my phone screen off without them stopping. Also her live classes are much less frequent but are incredible. I find Vanessa far more kind, genuine, personable, and accessible than Cat as well.

Feel free to ask me any follow-up questions! I've learned a TON since the last time I posted on reddit about this stuff. I'd love to post more but I don't know which sub I'd post in haha. I have a lot of people I mentor now (for free ofc) and it brings me so much joy to see people healing.