Emdr - Is It Really The Solution?

[Me Myself and I]

I've been on an EMDR therapy for a few months now, as a treatment to my PTSD. Can someone tell me how it works exactly? What happens inside the brain while tapping for example? Have you tried it? Did it work? Is it that effective?

Sorry, too many questions, I am just so confused.

Thank you.

 

[AngelKeeperJ]

In short, EMDR did wonders for me. I had been through LOTS of 'talk therapy', and wanted something different. It was, and it helped amazingly!

The easiest way for me to explain what I know about how it works, is that the tapping, or the vibrating 'pads' (they vibrated alternately between my right and left hands) keeps a part of our brain 'busy' while the therapist 'implants' new, pre-discussed information spoken by the therapist. It's a way to get deeper into the subconscious mind.

That being said, each therapist has a somewhat different, though similar way of practicing it, but I know it helps. It helped me get closure regarding the way my daughter died, and helped my father 'reach' farther into his mind for clues to his depression. Sometimes just talking about our problems isn't enough, and I, for one, needed something different.

Give it time, and accept that this could be helping you in such a subtle way, that you may not have noticed changes yet. The effects are not big, and often are hard to put into words. It can help in more than one area in your thinking patterns, and thus, can benefit you unpredictably.

I hope this helps a bit!

Welcome, and I wish you peace on your journey!

 

[naturebaby_85]

Very interesting post! Thank you for sharing.

I too had questions regarding EDMR and it's effectiveness, I guess it really is based on each person personally and hard to answer, but is it a therapy that requires a while to notice results? Ie, 3-4 months or so? What was the frequency of treatment? Ie, once a week?

Has anyone tried EDMR via Skype? That is perhaps a issue for me- I tried 3 sessions over Skype as I'm now based in non English speaking country in Europe.

Can anyone provide any personal opinions on EDMR VS cognitive behavioural therapy?

Thank you!

 

[anthony]

I do not understand how EMDR could be done via Skype, because the therapist wouldn't have the same visual proximity to measure subtle body movements, muscle spasms, so forth, to adjust their approach.

Trauma therapy is unfortunately not something you can stick a time frame upon. It is lovely to say 12 weeks or so, however; that can be unrealistic for some who require a year or more of therapy to solve their problems, especially childhood trauma, which can take months to years depending on the person, not necessarily the severity, but the person.

 

[naturebaby_85]

Hi Anthony,

Thank you so much, my knowledge of EDMR isn't the most expansive so I wasn't sure if performing EDMR therapy over Skype was going to be as successful as in person.

I wasn't aware that visual cues, ie - muscle spasms etc even occurred?

I found the 3 sessions quite soothing but wasnt sure of its effectiveness in the long run, ie, whether it would help process trauma if I kept at it.. I guess the only way to know that, is if I tried it for longer.

I know this may sound stupid.. But I have some gut feeling inside that u may be a little too far "gone" for lack of other words, in which EDMR may not be effective at this stage I'm at. It's hard to articulate verbally what I mean here!

 

[naturebaby_85]

And yes.. Dealing with childhood trauma (sexual) and adulthood issues - infidelity (sexual)
What is your personal opinion on EDMR?

 

[anthony]

My personal opinion is that EMDR is a very effective treatment for PTSD when delivered correctly. The same results have been concluded by EMDR with and without the distraction (tapping, audio, et cetera), thus it was categorised as an exposure therapy treatment, which is already one of the top methods for PTSD. If it is working for you so early, then stick with it, as the longevity results for exposure treatments show around a 60% completely successful outcome, and the remaining 40% have minimised symptoms to very few experiencing no benefit.

 

[naturebaby_85]

Wow, you are very well researched on this topic,

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and opinion.

Can I ask one more question - if you were to explain or describe the method of EDMR, how would you describe it?

At the moment all I do is tap left-right whilst discussing something from past (hasn't even really been directly related to trauma).. And I'm asked to say the first thing that comes to my mind.. At times nothing comes to my mind so it feels like I'm making things up!
Does that kind of make sense?

Is this the general method for EDMR to your knowledge?

 

[anthony]

It varies from therapist to therapist, depending on their method for application. Some get the clients talking with them, others have them do it silently in their head and signal when ready to proceed. There is no one way to deliver it, though the underlying foundation is pretty much the same, which your description covers.

 

[naturebaby_85]

Ah ok, thank you so much for your help and knowledge, you've been wonderful! Thank you

 

[marc and honey]

Great thread, I have heard horrer stories from EMDR, it is great to hear the benifets.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I'm going to answer your title question.

No, EMDR is not "the" solution in that there is no solution to fix us all. Many get great benefits from EMDR. Unfortunately I wasn't one of them and moved on to other types of exposure therapies. And I'd be quite surprised if anyone didn't use other types of therapies/skills in addition to EMDR in order to manage symptoms and heal.

If you're getting benefit from it, then keep at it. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the same goes for our trauma in that it takes time to heal.

I wish you the best.