Emdr On The Nhs

[Echo]

After a year of waiting and being passed from psychiatric assessment to psychology assessment and being diagnosed with CPSTD, I have been told today that there is no funding for the treatment I need on the NHS in my county. All concerned agree I need EMDR. All agree that I need something to stabilise me beforehand. All agree that the existing provision here would be too traumatising for me. I don't know the exact name of the therapy, but it was developed for Vietnam vets and is considered too brutal for someone like me who has suffered child abuse and rape.

Whilst I have been waiting to hear and because I have felt absolutely desperate, I have started to see a very experienced trauma therapist privately. She also works out of the Trauma Centre 9 miles away from here. There are other organisations which offer EMDR in the country, albeit privately. It all costs a fortune (£120 a session - 50 mins - at the Trauma Centre). Since I am so unwell, I cannot work and I cannot turn to family for help, since they are the ones who abused me.

I just don't know what to do. I feel desperately hurt that the NHS is effectively turning me away despite my diagnosis. I feel like they have tossed me on a rubbish tip. I am a highly educated person who has contributed a lot to society but I now feel utterly devalued not only by the emerging memories of what my parents did to me but also by the NHS's response.

I would like to hear from anyone else in the UK who has received funding for EMDR on the NHS. Would you mind telling me in which county you received it and whether it was available on the NHS or whether you were referred outside the NHS by your GP (i.e. they paid for it, despite it being not available within the NHS's own services). One respondent to another thread mentioned she had received it in Scotland. I live in the South East of England. Thank you for your help.

 

[HelenB]

I am also in the UK and am having EMDR as part of my therapy on the NHS, but this is part of therapy I am recieving from a sexual therapist and though it is also under the NHS I was referred idependantly to her by my GP because of problems in my mariage with our physical relationship, as well as being under my local mental health team.

I am sorry to hear you are having such a hard time and really hope you are able to find a way to access the support which you deserve so much.

Helen

 

[Echo]

Thank you, @HelenB, I am sorry to hear about your troubles, too. Have I understood correctly that you were referred by your GP to a therapist outside of the NHS but funded by them? I am trying to find out whether there is any chance or precedent of that happening. I am also hoping to find out if there is a county or counties in the UK that have EMDR services - if all else fails, I may have to move house. Thank you.

 

[HelenB]

No my therapist is also under the NHS but is independent to the mental health services and I was referred separately to her by my GP.

Helen

 

[Echo]

Ok, thanks, Helen

 

[cherryblossom]

Hi Echo. If you haven't already done so, you might find it beneficial to read the NICE guidelines with regards PTSD SandInMahEye

NICE - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. NICE provide the NHS and others with advice on the management of individual conditions. It is these guidelines that the NHS follow to treat patients, and to justify their spending (or more often non-spending!) within their budgets.

With regards to PTSD, NICE guidelines recommend

All people with PTSD should be offered a course of trauma-focused psychological treatment (trauma-focused CBT or eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing). These treatments should normally be provided on an individual out-patient basis

You can review these guidelines online to help you decide whether you have been offered the 'recommended' treatment or not. Unfortunately a lot of primary care trusts (GP's) will hide behind these 'guidelines' as a reason to not fund more advanced or specialised treatment.

I did see a EMDR specialist at her NHS trauma clinic, which was run at a local GP practice (not my regular practice). So, to answer your question, I did have EMDR on the NHS. I'm sure she probably did private work as well. I had a very bad experience with her, which is really by the by, in the context of this discussion. (With hindsight, it is my personal opinion that I don't feel she did enough background work with me before embarking on EMDR and as a result I was completely re-traumatised and had no coping or grounding skills, post-session.)

Feel free to contact me by PC, if I can be any further help to you.

Regards
CB

 

[Echo]

Thank you, @cherryblossom. Yes, I found those guidelines relatively early on and spoke about them to my GP. It also says that PTSD sufferers should not have to fight for their treatment - oh, the irony! My GP's take on it was that guidelines are only guidelines. It is really kind of you to take the time to provide me with the link again, though.

I am so sorry that that supposed EMDR specialist treated you so badly. The trauma therapist I am seeing (for how much longer?) makes it quite clear it shouldn't be used on anyone until they are stable, so one can only wonder at how specialist your specialist actually was.

 

[HelenB]

@cherryblossom my therapist also made it very clear that it was important to have support and be in a stable enough place before doing the EMDR and was working with me prior to starting it and helped me get other support in place too, and also reevaluates each session to decide together if it is appropriate within each session and helps with grounding skills and finding safety and coping skills. I am sorry to hear that this was not your experience and of your experiences of being retraumatiaed and really hope you have been able to find safety within your therapy now to be able to work through your issues in a safe way.

Helen

 

[cherryblossom]

I think there is still a huge issue within the NHS when it comes to treating mental health issues, mainly because of lack of funding. And because of that the NHS sometimes tries to provide a service, but does so on the cheap, and therefore doesn't always get the best specialist for the job (which I think was the case in my situation -either she was limited by experience, or by the number of sessions I was 'allowed' to have).

@Echo You are absolutely right, that you shouldn't have to fight for your treatment, but I also hope that if you do 'have' to fight for it, that you have the strength to do so.

The other issue, as you have found, is that PTSD, is PTSD in the eyes of the NHS, and as we know one treatment doesn't suit all. Treating someone with PTSD from a car crash is different from treating someone with PTSD from a childhood full of sexual abuse, for example, but also whatever the cause, treatment plans differ from patient to patient with any illness, and NICE guidelines don't necessarily cover that, especially in a low budget discipline such as mental health.

Honestly, for me, having PTSD from stranger rape, the best treatment I had was from a charity who solely dealt with people who had suffered sexual abuse/ assault. I honestly believe that had I relied solely on the NHS, I would still be suffering daily with the worst symptoms of PTSD.

@HelenB , thank you, yes. My EMDR experience is thankfully a few years ago. I found the most amazing therapist through a charity, and for the most part manage my PTSD very successfully day to day.

 

[HelenB]

I am so glad that you did find the treatment you needed through a charity.

I agree totally about the problems with the NHS and lack of funding and experienced massive issues myself when a limited number of sessions came to an end and though lots of things came up outside my control right at the end there was no follow up or support and I was left in a very bad place. Fortunately I also had very good support from a Christian charity, Ellel ministries, which is still ongoing and do not think I would have for through that time without.

Helen

 

[Hashi]

Hi Echo,

This may be something that you've already looked into, but I wondered how you're searching for a private EMDR therapist. Have you used EMDR as the "therapy type" in a search of the BACP register? (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy)http://www.itsgoodtotalk.org.uk/therapists/

I know from experience that general googling of private therapy will turn up the most expensive options, because these are the people/organisations with the slick websites that come up in search results. I've also found that a lot tend to be psychologists, who seem to charge at least 50% more than psychotherapists. However, the BACP register will give results for individual psychotherapists in their own small private practice who have trained in EMDR as well as other things. Doing a quick search, even in London there are therapists offering EMDR at around £60 per session.

As always, you would need to check their exact EMDR training, qualifications and experience, as well as their wider trauma qualifications and experience and whether you felt you could work with them. They may turn out to be not what you want. But if you haven't done this already, it might be worth a look. If you have done this already, then sorry for suggesting something you've already tried.

I'd add that like @cherryblossom, I also benefitted greatly from non-EMDR therapy at a charity. In my case this was a specialist Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (RASASC, which is also known as Rape Crisis). At mine it was pay what you can afford, even if that was zero. There are more options than EMDR and the brutal whatever-it-is that the NHS provide in your area.

There's nothing available to me at all in my area of the NHS, and although I've found it hard to pay for private therapy (which I have done, after the RASASC time ran out) I'm actually glad in the end that it was that way. You have no choice who you see on the NHS and I think it's very, very pot luck.

 

[Echo]

Hi @Hashi, thanks for your post. I have found a really good therapist and have been working with her for a few months. I was desperate and had to see someone otherwise I don't think I would have survived. She crossed my path by sheer chance. She works with sensorimotor therapy and EMDR, though she thinks I'm a long way off being ready for the latter. She is a very experienced trauma psychotherapist and I like and trust her. The issue is purely one of cost. Way before starting work with her, I went to my GP and got caught up in this long, pointless process with the NHS. I had their final letter today, to say that had nothing to offer me. I really don't understand why they couldn't have just admitted it from the start. It has caused untold stress - as so many people report.

My hope would be that my GP could refer me outside of the NHS. Since my therapist also works at the Trauma Centre just down the road, as well as at her home, either of which would be the cheapest option for the NHS compared with other things out there, I had hoped that I would in fact end up continuing to work with the same therapist, but with at least some NHS funding. Maybe that will still happen. Probably cloud-cuckoo land though.

I haven't yet met or heard of anyone who has managed to get their NHS GP practice to pay for outside services. That was really why I posted this thread; to find out if anyone had done so. It doesn't look like it.

If all else fails, I may have to go back to Rape Crisis. I believe strongly in their value, but in my case when I approached them early on in this saga, they didn't really have anything to offer me as someone with late on-set CPTSD. I get very triggered by other people's stories and generally too involved, so working in a group setting is really not going to work for me, and just talking about my abuse and rape puts me deep into dissociation, amnesia and all the rest of it. For some reason, the local branch don't offer one-to-one counselling and couldn't recommend any therapists to me. It wasn't what I'd expected, but then I had never enquired about their services before. Maybe different branches offer different resources.

I may probably end up hobbling along paying for what I can. Like you, I suspect that that in itself may be good for my sense of self worth. It is just, since I am freelance, nobody is paying my salary while I am ill, so it is terribly difficult at the moment when I am in a state of total freeze and can't use my brain and therefore cannot work. I was ill for many years with CFS, so my resources are severely limited and almost at an end.

Thank you for listening.