EMDR/ART provider red flag ?

[NightSky]

My T sent me to someone for EMDR to work in conjunction with her. I went for my first EMDR session, and the therapist talked about how she is being trained in ART and will use that script as she believes it’s more effective and quicker. So we dove right in with no groundwork except for background info my T provided her. I chose to work on a present day situation that causes me to feel hyper vigilant when it shouldn’t. But in the process had to answer a lot of questions that went deeper than I felt comfortable given I’ve just met this person. I answered anyway. I can push myself and then realize after it was the wrong choice.
Last night I had a session with my husband and marriage counselor and she told me she doesn’t recommend ART for complex PTSD/ recurring childhood trauma as it’s so scripted and isn’t the best modality for clients with extremely painful memories.
Now I’m wondering if the way this process started is a red flag and if the new emdr T should have known this?
I feel like I’m going along with what everyone wants me to do because I want to heal. But I have felt so off since the ART session over a week ago. I have had major anxiety (which I haven’t struggled with in a long time) and a feeling of unease and doom, and am incredibly overstimulated and over sensitive.
Obviously I will discuss this with emdr T and regular T who I see today. I just am wondering if my feeling like that’s a major red flag is part of my current over sensitivity.. or if it actually is.

 

[dharmaBum]

I'm just learning about ART from your posting and can see how it would sound attractive as a modality, especially for those who have suffered for a long time. I've had to be assertive with providers and say I am only looking for a specific type of treatment, and for specific reasons. I hate the pain that cannot be undone from providers trodding carelessly into the heart and soul of clients who are not the sliver-window that fits the mold of their modality.

I'm sorry you had that experience and I think that reaching out to your initial counselor about your concern before your next appointment (if that is allowed) is appropriate. I recently experienced something somewhat similar when starting Prolonged Exposure Therapy and I spoke directly and pretty immediately to my provider over email and we collaborated to switch up the session length and frequency so I was experiencing less dysphoria on my own. If I hadn't reached out, I would have had a week instead of days when I was in brain-breaking crisis mode, a level of distress much higher than when I had sought treatment.

 

[Sideways]

I just am wondering if my feeling like that’s a major red flag is part of my current over sensitivity.. or if it actually is.

Not necessarily.

ART is relatively new, so there aren’t a lot of studies to establish if it’s effective. There have been some positive initial studies, with sustained PTSD symptom reduction from short treatment programs of ART. But it’s really too soon to tell.

I’m always skeptical of therapies that purport to be a ‘quick fix’ for ptsd. But it sounds like your EMDR is intended to supplement your core therapy, rather than replace your core therapy work. In which case, it makes sense that you may not need to have spent as much time establishing safety, and there’s less expectation that it will be a magic quick-fix.

It’s worth discussing it with your primary therapist to get her take, and confirm with them if that’s what they had in mind when they referred you to this EMDR practitioner.

 

[Friday]

how she is being trained in ART

No one, with ANY experience in complex trauma, would use a complex trauma client as a training exercise for themselves.

Talk to your actual T, let them know new T, instead of taking the EMDR referral, wants to use you as part of their training in a therapy they aren’t certified in, yet, & doesn’t have solid literature. That they’ve decided you’d be a good guinea pig to experiment & f*ck up with.

I expect you’ll get a new EMDR referral, and the eedjit will get a smack upside the head by their colleague. As, if you sent someone to a person you trust? It’s a betrayal of that trust to using them as a training exercise in a completely different thing.

 

[NightSky]

My T said there are varied opinions about the use of ART for complex trauma and while some believe it’s best others believe it’s not. She said she will tell her to do emdr and not art for now. I don’t necessarily feel like she was practicing on me as she’s been doing emdr for so long and art is so similar except it involves a script, so she I’m sure feels qualified to use it. But part of me def feels like it’s off to do that.

 

[Freddyt]

No one, with ANY experience in complex trauma, would use a complex trauma client as a training exercise for themselves.

Yup - patient, not guinea pig....

She said she will tell her to do emdr and not art for now.

EMDR and a sprinkle of other therapy if you run into something sticky maybe. My T has half the alphabet behind her name and we have done a little bit of work with other therapies here and there.

But ONLY with stuff that's really sticky, and the main script has always been EMDR.