EMDR or CRM (Comprehensive Resource Model) ?

[StuckInPtsd]

Hello,
I m new to this community. On June 8 2017 i went though the 12 most horrific hours of my life. PTSD kicked in on the second half of August 2017. I did not know how horrible that can be.

Psychiatrist gave me AD and benzo on September 2017, diagnosed PTSD in January. I’ll spare you the whole chronology

I tried Brainspotting. In 9 months it only produced tangible effects once because 48 hours prior the session I lived something which reminded me June 2017.
Tried talk therapy : it never helped me to talk again and again of what happened. Besides I barely trust people after what happened.
Tried hypnosis : did not help .
Trans cranial magnetic waves : 10 sessions . Only had a clear image of the shirt I was wearing on June 2017.
Médications : i had 5 différents types of AD : never provided me relief. I started sleeping pills 1,5 month ago.

Bottom line over the last 3 years and half it gets worth and worth.
I’m at a point where I m considering being on medical leave and ultimately quit my job ( stressful job but I used to like it and be good at it prior June 2017).

In short I lost 3,5 years of my life.
I m losing hope as time pass by
I heard of CRM and EMDR

Do any of you find a way to get away from PTSD with these therapy ?

Thanking you in advance

 

[Friday]

EMDR is a gold standard treatment for PTSD.

I’ve never heard of CRM.

 

[joeylittle]

I tried Brainspotting. In 9 months it only produced tangible effects once because 48 hours prior the session I lived something which reminded me June 2017.
Tried talk therapy : it never helped me to talk again and again of what happened. Besides I barely trust people after what happened.
Tried hypnosis : did not help .
Trans cranial magnetic waves : 10 sessions . Only had a clear image of the shirt I was wearing on June 2017.
Médications : i had 5 différents types of AD : never provided me relief. I started sleeping pills 1,5 month ago.

Unfortunately, you've spent a lot of time doing things that aren't proven to help PTSD to an effective degree for most of the people, most of the time.

As @Friday said - EMDR is an evidence based treatment for PTSD. It'll be smart for you to educate yourself about what it is and how it works, simply so that you can feel informed when you're committing to a practitioner.

This post will help: Information on EMDR

CRM, I wasn't familiar with either. Reading up on it - my advice would be to try straight EMDR first. This statement from the Comprehensive Resource Model website encapsulates why:

CRM® was originally developed for use with those individuals who experience the challenges of Complex PTSD, severe Dissociative Disorders, and Attachment Disorders, however most psychiatric diagnoses are effectively addressed through the use of this model. The question is not “Can I use this with x, y, z diagnosis?” but rather “How do I use CRM® with any diagnosis”. Military veterans and their families find this modality to be particularly effective in healing the deep wounds caused by war. Performance Enhancement goals for sports, expressive arts, public speaking or any type of performance needs in any age group are most often effectively reached.

(bolded for emphasis)

It's not surprising that their own materials claim the protocol is useful on many other diagnoses; that's just good marketing, and who knows? could be true.

But, from reading a few articles and watching some interviews done with the founder - CRM is part-protocol, part philosophy, and all designed to handle multiple traumas. It looks to me like it could be really effective for individuals dealing with C-PTSD stemming from multiple traumas occurring in childhood and early adolescence. There are aspects of CRM that can be applied concurrently with other treatment protocols (such as EMDR) - and, much like EMDR and its offshoots, CRM works with eye focus and memory/recall/re-telling.

The certification process is very similar to the one for EMDR, in that it's multi-phased and a pretty significant time investment (for the practitioner to become certified), which is always a good sign.

All that being said - if I'm reading you right, there's a single traumatic event. Those can be really effectively dealt with in EMDR, and in a time-limited way. You also might look into Prolonged Exposure therapy, which is the most basic of approaches, and where the whole notion of trauma processing began. Some people criticize it for being too emotionally difficult; and that might be true....kind of depends on the person.

Those are my thoughts, FWIW.

 

[Wendell_R]

I've done EMDR, and it's been very helpful. I haven't done CRM, but I will add some recent thoughts my therapist shared. My therapist is quite experienced at EMDR and is an EMDR consultant. In other words, T really believes in EMDR. Recently, though, T has started doing CRM and has found it to be very exciting and promising. T described it to me as having multiple levels of resources, and thus giving the PTSD sufferer even more tools. However, the actual steps for implementing CRM are highly triggering for me, and just hearing about it sent me to a dark place. So, we decided to stay with EMDR, for me, but T certainly endorsed CRM.

 

[StuckInPtsd]

Thank you very much for your replies.
That event occurred a year or so after I recovered from a depression. Hence, a « trauma specialist » called it CPTSD ( that would make sense if I write the all stories but I would rather not)
When it comes to the certification process the websites of EDMR schools do have a record of each classes a therapist attended. However , for CRM, to my knowledge, aside of a few names of certified CRM practitioners or CRM consultants there are little infos about how far a therapist has gone through the teachings of CRM ( there are CRM1 and CRM 2 and CRM certified ).
@joeylittle I trusted the BSP psychologist since I was refered to her by a psychiatrist. After 8 months of little or no progress I checked out her resume . She finally did not look that qualified for trauma. Since beginning of 2020 I read every studies or articles I could on PTSD therapy.
PE is what intend to do the new psychiatrist. However from what is said on studies there are a high drop out , which is around 30%.
another article pointed the fact that therapy which were not evidenced by RCT should not be discarded directly, pointing the fact that EMDR was raising suspicions 15 years ago.
CRM is praised by two psychiatrists working in the field of trauma. However I don’t know if they have financial stakes in the CRM system.
For now I have the name of a psychologist who has a lot of certifications in EMDR. She would be available at the beginning of February only.
In the meantime I m trying to get infos of anyone who would have experienced CRM first hand. I m enclined to believe what those psychiatrists said about that method but prefer to get some feedback from patients before trying it. Let’s say that my experience with the BSP psychologist did not cure the trust problem I have been having for the last 3 years.
Thank you again for replying to my questions.
I feel a bit less lonely whith that PTSD.
Warm regards