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Post-EMDR Processing

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Has anyone else gone through something similar? If so, how did it resolve? How did you articulate your concerns to your therapist?

And for those who mention you spent a lot of time on resourcing, exactly how long? Multiple entire BLS sessions? Or 10-15min at beginning of BLS session, or just 5 min of tapping in resources daily by yourself at home?
EMDR was overwhelming to my younger parts initially. Not doing the trauma work--we didn't even get close to that. Just experiencing the alternating taps and sounds brought up terrors of being hit relentlessly. Same experience with doing leg taps at home. Initially, that was fine, but then horrible flashbacks came up. So, we went really slowly, taking a whole summer to get used to the EMDR apparatus bit by bit. Then, multiple short sessions of just resourcing.

My therapist talked about the window of tolerance and brought that up afterward, so it was fairly easy to get used to saying, "last week's session was too much," or "the last session was just about right".

EMDR is a lot easier now for me. We still do a lot of resourcing. If I come in with a peaceful idea or image, we'll take a few minutes to "tap that in." And when we process trauma by EMDR, we usually end in a safe and loving place, bringing up those resources again at the end.
 
EMDR was overwhelming to my younger parts initially. Not doing the trauma work--we didn't even get close to that. Just experiencing the alternating taps and sounds brought up terrors of being hit relentlessly. Same experience with doing leg taps at home. Initially, that was fine, but then horrible flashbacks came up. So, we went really slowly, taking a whole summer to get used to the EMDR apparatus bit by bit. Then, multiple short sessions of just resourcing.

My therapist talked about the window of tolerance and brought that up afterward, so it was fairly easy to get used to saying, "last week's session was too much," or "the last session was just about right".

EMDR is a lot easier now for me. We still do a lot of resourcing. If I come in with a peaceful idea or image, we'll take a few minutes to "tap that in." And when we process trauma by EMDR, we usually end in a safe and loving place, bringing up those resources again at the end.
Thank you, Wendell. The window of tolerance is something I wasn't familiar with, and learning about the concept is helpful.
 
Hello, I just started virtual emdr aand didn’t feel very
Connected to my therapist, but she is one of the only ones in my area that I can access. It’s going ok I guess- remembering things around the trauma. I also have a list of different traumas and I’m not sure why we are so focused on this particular one (I’d rated it an 8 in an early session but only because the week I was rating it a similar event occurred that triggered the memories of it.) i felt completely spaced out after the session like I wasn’t in the room and the day after I was sooo tired and literally couldn’t get out of bed. But I have been struggling with this anyway recently. I’m just so tired of the patterns of depression and hoped EDMR would help alleviate it but it’s prolonging it in a way. I will talk to my therapist about this but she knows I am quite analytical and want to rationalise things but in her words this process can’t be rationalised. I’m not sure we do enough talking and safety stuff after the tapping. It is comforting to know I’m not the only one who feels like this. I’ve read it gets worse before it gets better and you should be in the best possible state you are capable of before doing it. For me this means mediation yoga and no alcohol 48hoirs before or after. I have also been following the work of the holistic psychologist and an in her self healers group which is very helpful.
 
When I started EMDR, I spent a day or two after sessions recovering. When we found trauma - it felt like I had been beaned over the head with a baseball bat for a couple months afterword. Now my hangover depends on what we work on and how hard we have to work on it. Tuesday was a very tough session as we may have found trauma again. My reaction has been not great but I am coping much better than I did with the initial trauma.

Right about the time we found trauma I found this forum and now, I have more tools for coping with therapy fall out. My between session box closes tight now and what goes in only comes out in therapy. My ability to sense and manage stress is so much better. My counters and grounding are so much better. My control over catastrophizing and hyper-vigilance is massively improved. I have skills for evaluating how stressful activities are and for surviving things I have to do that are stressful before they even start. I also know that sometimes it will just be too much and I need to stay away.
 
I just want to thank everyone for sharing, I am struggling with post processing fatigue, my rage and fear sit inside me until I work through it. I have complex ptsd so I know the road to recovery is hard and will take a while. It is good to know that I am not alone in my exhaustion.
 
I just want to thank everyone for sharing, I am struggling with post processing fatigue, my rage and fear sit inside me until I work through it. I have complex ptsd so I know the road to recovery is hard and will take a while. It is good to know that I am not alone in my exhaustion.
With EMDR whatever floats to the top and is bothering you is usually what you work on. Rage is a tough one because it's almost like a "catch all" emotion with PTSD.

By "Catch All" I mean all kinds of other stuff is involved with rage like humiliation, frustration, anger, feelings of inadequacy, negativity, and a ton of other baggage. It's where PTSD turns into a tangled mess because you need to separate those things to deal with them and to fix rage.

Fear is way easier. Learning that all input is negative and you need space to sort out whats what and counter to your core beliefs that are wrong - is big mouthful but it's part of moving on.
 
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