NC, here's something else to consider about the therapist thing. I have a neighbor who had bad PTSD for most of his adult life, he had been a sniper in the Vietnam war and had killed quite a few people and had a hard time comming to terms with that. He had been through the mill with Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Counslers/Therapists, all of it. It wasn't until he found one that had similar wartime experience that he could relate to that he was actually helped. He was able to get off all of his meds and his wife claims he is a completely changed man.
The moral to his story is that you may have to really shop around and interview many therapists until you find one that you click with. If there's no connection there and you feel they're really not helping you, move on, don't waste your time with something that's not working. Remember that many of these people have zero real life experience, the sum of their knowledge often comes from a text book/academia and that's not always enough. The same rule applies to alcohol treatment approaches, if it does not seem to be helping you or you just can't relate to it find something else. Just some thoughts NC.