How Many Emdr Sessions?

[forgottensore]

I have had three EMDR sessions so far on an weekly / bi-weekly basis and it might be the fact that I just started out with the therapy, but I don't feel much of any progress so far. I become more exhausted and tired out in the days or sometimes even the full week after the session, but I don't experience any of these things that many are talking about, e.g. having vivid dreams or remembering more details about the target or any other more or less related events.
I am wondering if anyone else on here has a similar experience of not only missing the feeling of relief, but also missing the feeling of progress in EMDR therapy.

 

[Jan74]

I have not started this theropy yet, although my counselor suggests that I start. I am also wondering what kind of success people have had with this type. It looks like how long you go varies a great deal, but I am wondering how long this last as in after. Has anyone coming to a point where they are not doing it anymore? Or do you just go longer between sessions and it is an life long thing?

 

[Nikki k]

This past April, I watched my husband shoot himself in the head the day after we filed divorce papers. We had a child together, she's almost 2. It has nearly ruined me. The only reason I'm still here is because my kids need me (I have a son as well from a previous marriage) I've been going weekly for emdr therapy for 5 weeks. I can say it is honestly working. I was really skeptical and the first 3 sessions were so hard that I really didn't want to continue. But I had pulled everything to the surface and knew that if I didn't keep going, I'd be in a worse place than I was before.

Session 4 was the one for me. I could tell a big difference after that one. I still have lots of flashbacks but I've noticed I'm not having as many (although they are still just as intense). I've had a few days where I've felt a little more like myself. I'm in no way 'better' yet, but I can definitely feel a difference. I've even had some mornings that the image of seeing him doing it isn't the first thing I see when I open my eyes...which is HUGE. In really hopeful. I've gone from a 10 to around a 7 so far. I would recommend it...I mean...there are no other real treatments for ptsd...so I couldn't see not trying it. For me, it was either try this or eventually lose my life...and I don't want to abandon my kids.

 

[forgottensore]

@Nikki k Thank you for sharing your story and all the best on your upcoming way to recovery!

I also had a few other sessions since the last time I wrote into this thread, but I'm not feeling better, but on the contrary worse than in a long time for the last three weeks. I'm anxious and depressed, feel uncomfortable in the company of others and I'm sometimes confused about what is happening to me right now. I will get emotional outbursts, sometimes cry all day and I even cried several times at work yesterday before I finally decided to go home earlier and call it a day. I have the feeling I cannot trust my own thoughts anymore and this really scares me. Did anyone have any similar experiences and can at least tell me that this will pass? :(

 

[Sandles]

I've been doing EMDR for almost 2 years now. It's been a struggle and we haven't 'completed' a single...

I feel like you orchidbird, it's been over a year now for me and I'm definitely better but keep having setbacks. I also haven't been able to uncover any bad memories. Don't even know if I have PTSD because I don't know what my trauma would have been as I can't remember anything specific. All I know is I'm having a physical (or is it physiological?) reaction when I eat and she thinks it's a suppressed memory. But I'm also getting bored and discouraged but want to continue because I've already got the ball rolling.

 

[JOSEPH CAMILE]

Hi there,
I have been doing EMDR therapy targeting several traumatic memories. One, I have processed completely and I can...

You go girl!!! You are courageous, you will succeed! Best of luck!

 

[Amz]

I've been doing EMDR work on and off for quite a few years now. I have a great psychologist and I've worked through a lot of trauma. But I still have more to work through and I'm trying to be patient with myself.

I just lived in another country for a year so I had no access to my psychologist for that time. I also know I probably could never have lived in another country for that long if it weren't for all the work I'd already done getting to a fairly emotionally healthy place.

So now I'm back and I'm going to ask to do some more on some issues that have come up since I've been back. hopefully this is the correct thing to do. I feel it is. But I also have other techniques that I've used on my own to help me through difficult times like EFT (emotional freedom technique) listening to meditation, going deep into myself, looking after the inner child, drawing, journaling etc...

So to anyone who is doing EMDR, or considering it, I highly recommend it! But make sure you have a very good psychologist and develop other techniques that can help outside of therapy.

 

[Anonymous 1234]

I went in for therapy first time in my life due to sudden flashbacks , exaggerated startle response and insomnia due to childhood sexual abuse. Was blown away when therapist said I had ptsd. Emdr was a god send. In therapy for 6 months now most likely will have my last session. Can't believe how much this helped me. I sleep fine now, minimal flashbacks and startle response has decreased tremendously...

 

[Brother b]

I've been Exposed to trauma for over a year leaving me with effects we all know of...I had initially gone to one therapist, where we did not click and she actually demeaned me and made me feel worse...but luckily I changed to another therapist for EMDR and it literally works like magic to me...I have been doing 2 sessions a week about 45-50 minute long each for the past 3 weeks.

I cannot say that his works for everyone but it sure as hell worked for me..I am not cleared 100% but I am sleeping normally for the first time in over a year and a half, my stress levels are wayyy down, and I can live and focus my life again.

I personally know someone who had an extreme case of PTSD...extreme...and she went for a privatized 3-4 full day sessions for EMDR, and she came back a completely new person...almost all symptoms were gone...but it was also the hardest thing for her to do in her life, to face that terror.

If you are on the fence, or scared to try the emdr therapy I urge you to reconsider...and know if you need a longer or more frequent sessions, my therapist wanted to do once a week, but I knew I needed it twice a week for it to work for me...

It has litterally been like magic for me...it's hard to believe that something like this has that big of an impact, but it has changed my life.

 

[Marymickaela]

I've been off this site, but am looking for people who do EMDR and EFT. I've been with my EMDR therapist over 2 years and there have definitely been some intense sessions. However, I dug out my EFT book for some reason and 2 weeks ago we worked on that. The following week I really did my research and wrote down issues I wanted to tape on. When we started my session I said I wanted to do EMDR plus EFT combined. I can not begin to tell you how intense it was. For the EMDR I used headphones to leave my hands free for tapping on issues. I basically spent a good 30 min tapping away, tears pouring down my face as all these issues surfaced. I never stopped tapping and finally just had to stop as I felt so drained. Worst headache. I told my therapist I think maybe we came up with something that really worked for me. I plan to ask her if we can do it again this week, but it's interesting that some issues such as I'm a worthless piece of shit resolved itself. I now realize I am a good person who does care deeply about others and their happiness. I think it's good to allow time between sessions for our brains to process things.

 

[Adrian of the uk]

When I was a child of maybe 7 years old I was sexually used by a male neighbour ‘


I was 52 years old before I could even consider getting help. Even then, I have never told a single person of my abuse. Not my wife of 30 years even.


The point im getting to is this. Therapy is not meant to last forever. It doesn’t come cheap and most of us don’t have the cash to pour into worthless help. And that’s the bottom line here.


I hear people saying how intense and helpful the therapy is then I see they are still buying into sessions years later on a weekly or monthly basis. I hear and read of these wonderful therapists who seem to be so good that they can keep you coming with cash for years.


So, does therapy really help? It never helped me one single bit.


All claim a cure, but im yet to see a success measured in real terms.


I poured my heart out to my therapist over 20 weekly sessions, I gave all the details I could remember and I felt as worthless and vulnerable after it as I did before.


Please don’t insult my intelligence by saying the 20 sessions I had wasn’t enough.


When guidelines suggest an amount of therapy is it unreasonable to expect it to be close to the mark. It seems most are years out,


Im sure some people are helped but it seems to be a very hit and miss profession in my eyes.


I’ve heard all about dependency on a therapist, and shouldn’t you; as a professional be thinking something isn’t right after a whole year of weekly or bi-weekly sessions?


If you cant resolve a persons issues in a timely manner, then please, stop taking their money and suggest an alternative.


All your doing is prolonging their suffering and im sick of seeing people report how hard and intense a session is even have a couple of years treatment.


That is not humane howsoever you look at it. Stop with your mind works on us victims already and if you cant treat a person please tell them.


My abuse was over a relatively short period of time when I was a young child with little recollection. But I recall enough of what I was told by him and what we did.


Stop making us all think you have the cure, stop leading us up the garden path with guidelines that are not even close to the truth.


It either works or it doesn’t. and lets keep the guidelines.

 

[Suzetig]

I get how disappointed you are that 20 sessions didn't cure you. The first thing to recognise is that on an international site there will be very different cultural expectations around therapy.

In the US therapy of whatever modality tends towards a culture of long term work usually funded by insurance. The expectations is that people will be in therapy for years and that therapy is a first stop "treatment" for any distress or mental illness.

In the UK the culture around therapy is different, not least because the NHS doesn't want to fund long term therapy if st all possible so it draws on "evidence based therapies", or those that can submit to clinical trials and in some way prove effectiveness. The very nature of clinical trials means that manualised therapies (EMDR, CBT, DBT) are often considered to hold an evidence base and are offered over short periods of time (6-20 sessions) that doesn't necessarily mean they're the best or most appropriate therapies, just that they fit the narrow criteria of NICE guidelines. And they're often offered by people with minimal training, e.g. they've done a 6 week course which, because the therapy is manualised means anyone can do it - in theory.

Experience tells me the reality sits somewhere between the two. Some people really benefit from short term work and don't need further treatment- even 4/6 sessions with the right therapist makes a huge difference for them. Other people really do need long term relational therapies. The effectiveness of long term therapy is by its nature difficult to prove so rarely sits within NHS guidelines but that's a fault of the guidelines not the therapy.

I do understand your frustration but therapy isn't like medication - it's not a case of take X number of sessions and you'll be healed. I wish it were and I say that as someone who has done both short and long term therapy and hugely benefitted from both.