Anyone do Somatic Experiencing and EMDR at the same time?

[Freddyt]

So last session my T dove deep on something that came up and we did a ton of EMDR work. Today was a wave the white flag day, my tinnitus was singing loud today so no EMDR and where I knew there was talk therapy with my previous T I had no idea what to expect today, so I was a little extra stressy.

It also happens my T does Somatic Experiencing so that's what we did today, for the first time for me. It was interesting (and fun).

I was wondering if anyone here has done both therapies this way and what was your experience?

 

[Charbella]

I have not, but I am dying to know what you mean by and fun.

My T does EMDR and has been training in SE with me in mind when he first started. I‘ve been in the absolutely not camp. I pretty much live in my head and hands and leave the rest of my body to only necessities as far as feeling it goes. He suggested many ways to sort of approach feeling and all attempts have lead to flashbacks and shut down so for now I have no thoughts of doing it but I’ll be watching this thread with interest!

 

[Midnightmoon]

I'm the other way round, most of my therapy is somatic experiencing at the minute, with the hope to get to EMDR at 'some point'

If anyone had told me what somatic experiencing involved before trying it, I would of wrote it off instantly as too 'touchy feely'. Like I spend most of my time trying to avoid my body and all sensations, why an earth would I pay someone to literally spend 50 minutes getting me to notice them?! Isn't that a terrible idea?!

Fortunately, I had no clue what to expect, so I was completely 'in' it before I had a chance to shut it down and run the other way. Two years in, its gently getting me to face up to stuff I've dissociated from for far too long.

 

[Freddyt]

I have not, but I am dying to know what you mean by and fun.

So, new T, not a lot of sessions, and they have all been pretty serious and work. I had something big come up before our last session - one of those "have been working a couple years and boom, there it is thing", another trauma actually.

So yesterday was heavy reprocessing still, no way we were doing EMDR, and my T gave me a choice of what to do.

It was the first not serious working session we had so I was anxious because I didn't know what to expect. Once we sorted out what was going to happen things loosened up a bit for the first time and we talked about philosophical stuff - how I approach therapy, the things I do, how I consider my T my "guide" to healing - that my T guides me but I need to put in work too, that we are partners in my getting the most from therapy. All that stuff.

Things were far less serious than doing EMDR and it just got loose and a little silly, that release of tension because I know what to expect in non EMDR sessions now. Which worked well with the Somatic stuff because it was relaxing too. Like I said it was my first session doing it so - I have no expectations for what it does.

One of the biggest parts of my golf psychology was "get rid of expectations". So to that end - I have never delved into how therapy methods (EMDR, SE etc) work - to avoid having expectations of how it works......