What Is The Max Recommended Number Of Emdr Sessions Per Week?

[JOSEPH CAMILE]

Anybody has an answer for this?

I had three sessions last week, it was a bit rough towards the end of the week.

I used to have 3 psychotherapy sessions for week because that was what the shrink recommended. However, this is a different type of therapy, one that I'm just learning about.

Would appreciate feedback on this from all of you!

Thanks and much hope of healing for all of you.

 

[Esterio]

Thanks for the post a Joseph and welcome to this forum.
I don't know what the max sessions per week would be. I am getting EMDR I have only had one session so far My T keeps being off work so I am not moving forward yet. Several post under the Therapies forum to read and maybe get some answers. Good luck I hope you find the answer to your questions.
Peace be safe

 

[JOSEPH CAMILE]

Thanks for the post a Joseph and welcome to this forum.
I don't know what the max sessions per week wo...

Thank you my friend, best to you too!

 

[Ocin]

So I did an intensive and we mixed EMDR with early attachment work (that was front loaded the first day- day and a half) and I did 7-8 he per day for 5 days. Note that I will (sheepishly) admit dissociation at Nordstrom on day one 5 min from therapy after hearing a baby cry and noting smart phone shopping mom ignore ignore ignore until my eyes burned into her soul and she looked into the carriage at her infant. . . Woke up 15 minutes past end of lunch break with T texting to ensure I hadn't escaped in a massive fugue.
That said, if you can handle it knock it out man! I'm meeting with a (new to me) local EMDR T this week and praying I can do this in 3-5 hr/ wk. I am ready. I've dissociated daily since toddlerhood, I think. I can just imagine the gifts from clarity in several months even if I get a touch wobbly in the immediate (or for an hour or so) but that is me and my life/job/responsibilities/worrisome coping strategies that I see in balance with hope of wholeness.
Much respect to anyone willing to consider 3 hr/ wk!

 

[Ocin]

Oh and I did have some evening processing for sure. That's why the T I have seen off and on for yrs (not trauma tho) thinks I can't do it here at home but I disagree when I consider how much triggering and dissociating I do without the healing of EMDR, damn I'd prefer to try!

 

[JOSEPH CAMILE]

So I did an intensive and we mixed EMDR with early attachment work (that was front loaded the first day- d...

Hey Ocin,
First of all, thank you for responding and being so generous with your experience. I have a question: You say that you had 7 to 8 hours sessions for 5 days? Did I understand that right? I've heard of many combined therapies (I guess similar to yours) that are intensive and combine different methodologies.
There comes a time in any treatment when the only way to make progress is to push forward and be courageous, we all have to abandon our old ways and traveled roads in order to heal and make useful changes in our lives. Best,
Joseph

 

[Deleted member 28942]

I usually do one 90 minute EMDR session per week. Sometimes I add a second 60-minute EMDR session but that is rare. If the memories are exhausting than one session per week is enough because it is a lot of hard work and sometimes there is a lot of processing after a session. What is important it that you do it at a pace that works for you. Sometimes you do more EMDR and then take a break for a while. It is exhausting but worth it. I've been doing it for almost 2 years.

 

[Fayne Jane]

I have had 3 60 minute sessions that brought up repressed memories, it has left me exhausted, crying, angry, in physical pain. But I know it is helping and this forum is helping me by validating my feelings. Over the weekend I wanted to quit the EMDR as I experienced two repressed memories from my attack, rape and left for dead. Then I reads about other experiences and learned this is normal

 

[JOSEPH CAMILE]

I hear you Sister Fayne Jane! Stay courageous woman!
I guess nowhere else is the phrase "No Pain No Gain" more appropriate than among us here. I know that if we endure the challenges of the treatment and we push through the pain there is a new life for us ahead, one so rich and peaceful it's hard for us to imagine ourselves inhabiting that life. But Why Not? Remember, much of our transformational success depends on our ability to trust that we CAN become happier and freer people, with lives quite different from the ones we are working on and metamorphosizing at this present time. It's important to be able to let go of the "familiar" pain and to realize deep in our hearts that we deserve a fuller and more peaceful life.
I'll be posting some thoughts and synthesis on all of the above in a few days. I'll share with you.
Stay Courageous!
JC

 

[Ocin]

Hey Ocin,
First of all, thank you for responding and being so generous with your experience. I h...

Yes, I had hit burnout through my work and facing triggers daily and realized that a retreat setting has helped me in the past, so I googled EMDR and retreat. This led me to a really great experience, but hence opening to the knowledge that I spent many years in talk therapy but unfortunately did not access the two pieces underlying the symptoms-- significant emotional abuse and neglect as a child and repressed severe intrafamilial CSA. I have lots of skills and knowledge but the EMDR got to the deep somatic and abandonment memories that I did not keep in my conscious memory.

 

[Deleted member 28942]

@Ocin thank you for sharing your experience. That keeps me motivated to keep going with EMDR. It really does miracles although sometimes it is incredibly difficult.

 

[JOSEPH CAMILE]

Yes, I had hit burnout through my work and facing triggers daily and realized that a retreat setting has h...

Hello Ocin,
I share with you and extensive and not always so useful history of "talk therapy" (in all sorts of forms). God, I wish I had come across EMDR sooner! But I'm here now and feel surrounded by a community of incredibly courageous and optimistic people who are committed not to let their historical circumstances (traumatic as they might have been) have the last word in deciding the meaning and quality of the life they are willing to live. Best to everybody, stay hopeful, stay optimistic!