Emdr With Second Therapist

[SarahWatz]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Been seeing T for a while now and shared past trauma with her a few weeks back. She suggested today that I try a few sessions of EMDR with another therapist in addition to continuing to to work with her. I've been reading up on EMDR and while many people have shared positive reviews, I'm concerned about having to go to a second T because it's taken me so long to share with my current T.

Has anyone gone to a secondary T for EMDR? How did it affect your relationship with your main T? Is it worth it?

T also said she used a person-centered/somatic approach to trauma and that's how we'd proceed. Any helpful words of wisdom related to that would be appreciated too.

 

[Beaglefan61]

I have not had EMDR but there are many here who swear by it. That you are seeing a 2nd therapist for the EMDR you will not have an already established trust relationship there, but i hope that what is brought up can be taken back to your original therapist. I am not sure how it works for the type of relationship you are describing, but i hope it goes well for you. I can see how you would feel a bit apprehensive since it took awhile to share with your current therapist. Hopefully some who have had EMDR can have something to say that will be helpful to you.

 

[jedikit]

I have the opposite situation but it's working very well for me. I've got a therapist who started me on EMDR a few months into starting seeing her 4 years ago; it didn't go so well. I decompensated and started dissociating during sessions, I couldn't articulate much words during and had issues with slowing down the process because the images all were coming too fast and furious. I stutter anyway and I started to get very frustrated by not being able to talk when she'd ask what I was seeing during a session. I couldn't ground myself and I was getting suicidal during the rest of the week. I was a mess.

So she referred me out to a somatic therapist who's job it's been to teach me to stay in my body. I've been with her almost 2 years. (and my relationship with her is kinda rocky at the moment, but that's another thread based on her personal & professional life falling apart right now). But she's done fantastic for me. The somatic therapist I see weekly(ish) for ONLY grounding and resourcing in the here and now. We don't talk anything trauma related. She's working on getting me to expand my resiliency by guiding me through something a little upsetting in my everyday... then walking me back through grounding. Like blowing up a balloon I guess.

I still see both therapists. My original therapist is person-centered and knows my traumas. I have temporarily transitioned to seeing her every 2 weeks for the past few months (was seeing her weekly before that). We're holding off on resuming EMDR on positive resourcing for another few months before trying again.

The two therapists are aware of each other obviously, and they spoke at least 4 times about my care in the beginning that I do know of (but they are in the same supervision group, so I don't know if my chart ever comes up). So I don't know that they communicate ongoing. It was rocky and confusing at times in the beginning, because one therapist was telling me one thing and the other something different. But we made it work by not talking about the other in each other's session.

Eventually, my goal is to wean off the Somatic therapist (probably sooner than I'd like based on her present situation) and resume the EMDR on my traumas. I'm not quite there yet.

So not exactly your experience, but similar.

 

[Briellewannabe]

Sarah,

I just started EMDR with a second T that my T recommended. It's only been 2 weeks so far, and the first one both T's were there for the initial meeting, but I'm a little worried that it might be effecting my relationship with the first T. Already we've had a session and it seemed a bit awkward. I'm hoping it doesn't last, but it's there to a degree right now. I think my first T and I just need to focus on one thing and have the EMDR be separate, but I'm not sure how that'll be either. Time will tell I suppose.

Good luck! If you're worried about it changing your relationship with your T, talk to your T about that. I'm sure there's a way for it to be done without changing your relationship.

 

[Muted]

Has anyone gone to a secondary T for EMDR? How did it affect your relationship with your main T? Is it worth it?

I haven't gone to a secondary t for EMDR. My t does EMDR and I can't imagine going to someone else, because she gets me better than most anyone. I think it's good your bonded with your t, but I do think your limiting yourself without doing EMDR.

 

[hymnless]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Been seeing T for a while now and shared past trauma with her a few weeks back....

I started seeing a secondary T for EMDR a couple of months ago and it's felt pretty weird, but I'm getting used to it. After seeing my primary T for nearly 4 years, I finally disclosed a much larger part of my trauma history. I trust her 110% and it was very difficult for her to refer me to someone else. She was very upfront about not being a trauma T and that she was referring me because wants me to begin to feel better faster. I still see my primary T weekly and it makes my life feel stable. Sometimes we talk about the EMDR stuff, sometimes not. We're finding a new rhythm though. Good luck!!

 

[zoie33]

My EMDR therapist does both. When I'm having a particular bad reaction from EMDR we may spend the next session just doing talk therapy. I know you've seen your regular therapist for quite a while but I can't imagine sharing between the two. A lot of crap comes up with EMDR that I feel the need to talk about. It's just easier doing it with the same person.