Flash therapy in emdr?

[Freida]

My EMDR T told me she has a new technique called "flashing" to add to our emdr treatment. I'm stuck right now because my brain hijacks me the minute we get into my deeper traumas and I dissociate so fast I can't hold the memory to work on it. This technique is supposed to give me just split second views and then send me straight to a safe place. Hopefully it will keep me a bit more present

Anyone tried it?

 

[Deleted member 37474]

I have not tried “flashing.” (Unless this is what we are doing?) I will say, we don’t do any big trauma scenes. We keep to a very small part. Especially, when we first started. For example, the first one we did, we focused on when he shoved me into the cabinet and I couldn’t get away. The initial shove/pinned down part is where I was to focus. She said if your mind goes further into the trauma, pull it back to that moment. And a few times when it pushed further I did say “stop.” She referred to it as containment, I think. We have also gone over many ways to keep me distant enough from what is happeneing so that I don’t get sucked into it. It is hard though. One thing she suggested is to watch you watching it on a tiny tv screen. So you are twice removed from it. The one I created for myself seems to work best. I have put my dorm room into a thick glass box with no roof and a thick glass ceiling as well with a starry open black sky above me. I watch down from above . When I originally disassociated during the worse part of the rape, I watched down from above as well, and that is where I didn’t have to feel so much. So being up above the scene is similar, and a bit weird when I join myself up there.

Another thing she has suggested is many of the grounding items that she has around her office. Only problem for me is that I like to keep my eyes closed. After our last emdr session I was still struggling though we had done tapping and breathing stuff. She went to make me some hot tea. I stared at the oriental rug. I used to be afraid of it due to the color, but now it is very good for grounding. I talked about it when she came back in and found out that she is drawn to the same corner as I am for her own grounding needs.

EMDR is weird. I just wanted to add that in. My T and I have talked about how strange her job is. We even laughed about it. When she first started training in it, she was a skeptic. She is a wholehearted believer that it heals having done it for 15 years now.

 

[Freida]

LOL yep EMDR is weird! but successful! We've had enough success with some of the smaller stuff to encourage me to stick it out

I'm a pretty problematic patient (she says I'm a challenge and that it's exciting to get a chance to work with someone like me - how sweet is that? )

Even after a year of weekly emdr I'm still stuck in denial/disassociation. We have been able to work on some outside the edges stuff, but if we go anywhere the main trauma Poof! I'm gone. I've never been able to do a Safe Space - so the best we can do is ground me to the present. I use my dog a lot for that - touching him can bring me back. I used to close my eyes -- nope no more of that. I also can't do the containers. She tries to get me to see it from a movie view - which helps a bit. And - my brain goes where it wants to no matter how many times I try to smack it back. yep - I'm a huge pain in the ass

She thinks its a combination of multiple traumas in a short amount of time, that I had to keep functioning and stay quiet or die and then I went into a career where compartmentalizing is a job requirement. So she's trying to untrain my brain from doing what it does automatically. ugh. I think that's what this flashing thing is supposed to do -- short bursts of images and then back to present to shake some stuff loose

But I like the idea of the glass box and then looking at them from above. I'll try that this week

 

[Friday]

I also can't do the containers.

When I was first diagnosed -active duty- I was allowed to keep my job because "she compartmentalizes like a motherf*cker".

For me... PTSD is when those compartments break down. When I start leaking from one compartment to the next, mixing up the boxes I reach from / rules I operate out of / reactions that kick into place. Until it's like trying to cook in a kitchen with every dish/ pan/ item of food flung onto the floor by an earthquake, or a rollover RV. No order. Chaos of conflicting... everything. If I COULD put shit in containers? I wouldn't be f*cking symptomatic in the first place.

That's how I ended up diagnosed to begin with. Every time I came back in from the field I was a little bit wilder. Until it got so bad that I was getting promoted every time I went out, and NJP'd loss of rank & pay every time I was stateside & back on base. :banghead: Snort. I still have scars under my collarbones from getting pinned umpteenmillion times. In the field I was normal, hell I was good / damn good, but at home? I couldn't shift gears. Not unless my entire unit was hard-shifting. Work hard / play hard ... or shut down / blow up. I needed to be doing. Always doing. Better, harder, faster, more. Served me well when I was actually working. Too much downtime? f*ck me. No. Bad juju. My "safe space" is that moment, just before shit kicks off. Gearing up, or in someone's arms, either way... prepare to! ...safety's off ...heeeey baby ...Direction. Purpose. Need. It's a fluid thing, because safety? Ain't real. It's just a feeling. For me? That feeling only exists in the space right before acting, direction clear. It's the slow exhale before firing. It's running final check, kitted up. It's being in someone's arms, fire in my eyes, knowing exactly what I'm about to do to them. It's a very simple thing. But it requires action. Action kills fear.

My entire goal when I first started therapy 5-ish years ago was to get my compartments BACK. Come to find? At best that's a temporary solution. It does work... until it doesn't. Never really know when it's all going to go to hell. Once it does, though? Cha. I f*cking WISH I could just on demand lock shit down. Then I wouldn't have this problem. At least, I very much doubt I would.

 

[MyWillow]

Holy moly @Friday - you’ve just spun me 360. Was just sitting here trying to find the motivation to get going and wondered how the hell I managed to get kick @r$e results on my recent work trip. Huge pressure from my boss, managing co-workers, clear communication, managing client expectations, not much sleep and working with some rather cantankerous cattle. 100% confident. Get home and I just want to curl up with my dogs and cats. Short tempered. Teary. Anxious. I want my compartments back :)

 

[Freida]

Damn @Friday you have once again hit in the perfect explanation. And yes. Now we are adding in leakage from 911calls I thought were long dead and buried. Heavy sigh

 

[Freida]

Oh. And so...we tried it and the results were mixed. I was able to get an idea of what she wanted and to start the process and then BAM!!!! Brain hijack. Total flashbacks and hyperventilating.

We figured out I'm afraid to forget..how sucky is that

 

[Ronin]

I f*cking WISH I could just on demand lock shit down. Then I wouldn't have this problem.

You would, though.

Realistically, memory is a tricky motherf*cker, and even with cherrypicking what parts / what person of those parts / what location you're locking down / locking out? Things still leak out, with randomness, get annoying as hell for not being accessible back, smackdown when they *are* accessible or something spins them back up, and all around it's rarely just one piece + where it's from = in and out and voila. Finis, no worries.

Well, now, if there are people who *smoothly* lock shit, and then smoothly unlock shit? I'm all ears & all pens to take notes, in paper or blood, as it would save me for later. :sneaky:

 

[Lor]

My EMDR T told me she has a new technique called "flashing" to add to our emdr treatment. I'm stuck rig...

I am an EMDR Trained T and have just learned about FLASH. I have used it once so far and have found it to be very useful for people who are overwhelmed by a past memory or trauma. It allows them to "flash" by the memory without the full intensity of the emotions, and reduce the disturbance level enough to start the processing. It's actually so quick and easy that it's hard to believe it can work, it's worth a try...

 

[Freida]

k, it's worth a try...

Yea bout that. I guess I'm "special" LOL . Totally backfired on me...brought on a huge panic attack t was sad . She has high hopes it would work........

 

[Maryland]

Yea bout that. I guess I'm "special" LOL . Totally backfired on me...brought on a huge panic attack t...

If your therapist did FLASH and you had a huge panic attack, your therapist does not know what she's doing. In other words, she's not sufficiently competent to do the FLASH technique. There is no way, no how that you should be having huge panic attack as a result. That would suggest to me that you could not stay in the 'window of tolerance.'

She most likely needs to do more preparatory work with you.

I have done lots of EMDR and Flash EMDR work so I have some knowledge here. I also have done quite a bit of trauma work. Would love to know what the therapist was targeting. As a test, my therapist started with a relatively less intense trauma memory. She did not start with the most emotionally intense, difficult and personal. She tried something out to see how I would respond.

Also, the therapist should be monitoring your level of arousal during process and after. Having a huge panic attack does not quite make sense. You are suppose to be taking a very short 'peek' at the trauma. It's so little that it should feel unconscious. I see one of a few possibilities: you were not able to sustain your positive, calm place throughout the Flash procedure OR you went into the trauma for too long (overexposed) OR your therapist did not check in with you to make sure you were fully present and follow up with additional Flash or traditional EMDR as a follow up (this requires that you as client have a 'felt sense' of what still remains in your body, in my opinion). What was your SUD score at the end of the Flashing?

Flash works. But it doesn't work if your therapist is attempting to bypass that part of you that is afraid or resisting.

My EMDR T told me she has a new technique called "flashing" to add to our emdr treatment. I'm stuck rig...

If you have complex trauma, I would suggest working with a therapist trained in Internal Systems in addition to EMDR. FLASH EMDR can help reduce SUD score so that it makes it easier to process difficult traumas. However, staying present and not dissociating are skills you need to master, in my opinion, by getting in touch with your parts. Why is this 'part' afraid? Can you learn to befriend this traumatized part of yourself? Can you tell her she's now safe. "You are not in the trauma in 2018. You are safe. You are alive." Repeat these sentences as often as necessary. Dissociation is not being in the present. So, if this 'part' is in the trauma (at any time in session or out of session) you need to find a way to bring the traumatized part back into the room with YOU, where YOU are safe. Nothing is actually happening to YOU in the present moment. Things happened. But they are not happening now. Also: Dyadic resourcing is helpful to use with EMDR. Is your therapist trained in dyadic resourcing. There are books written by Laura Parnell. You can pick up a book for yourself called Tapping which describes the process of installing internal resources. Healing from trauma involves having a therapist that gives YOU the skills so that you can facilitate your own healing. It's about empiwering yourself. Good luck.

 

[Freida]

@Maryland thank you for all that ---- It helped explain a lot!

There is no way, no how that you should be having huge panic attack as a result

Yea...it caught both of us off guard.

: you were not able to sustain your positive, calm plac

ahhh. Thus could be what happened. I don't have a safe space. Never have been able to create one so during EMDR she has to ground me to the present...usually with my service dog. It's a huge pain in the ass to be honest but...

we do IFS and T had just learned the flash technique so we were both intrigued to try it. When it backfired in just the first minutes she called it off and we haven't tried it again. She did ask her instructor who agreed it was an "unusual reaction" . Yea me. I'm special lol. They think it it' may be because I dissociate so quickly at any memories. Someday I may get the be present stuff but.....ugh.