Emdr?

[Healing Reins]

Hi guys!

So I started seeing my new therapist today! And she was really sweet, and I'm super excited to get to know her, and start working with her more, the only problem is I start EMDR next week. I've heard what EMDR stands for, I'm just scared I'm going to have a flashback in therapy and she's going to think I'm weird or something..

How does your therapist handle it when you have flashbacks?
Is it hard to talk to your therapist about your trauma?
And has EMDR been helpful or hurtful as to recovering from your trauma?
What do you find helpful to do in therapy when it comes to your trauma?

Hope everyone is well! Thinking of, and praying for all of you!

xoxo-
T

 

[Deleted member 1860]

If you just met her, next week is too soon to do EMDR. Check out the when EMDR goes wrong thread.

 

[Echo]

@Taia12896 - I hope your therapist will do lots of preparation (months of it) before she takes you into EMDR. You need to be properly stabilised first. That is what I am doing with my therapist first. I haven't had any EMDR yet, and she tells me I may never have it. It is too dangerous to just go ahead with it. I expect she will spend quite some time getting to know you, building trust, teaching you lots of grounding techniques and making sure you are physically, emotionally and mentally safe before she would ever start on the EMDR. At least I hope so. Make sure that she makes it really clear to you what she proposes to do. If a therapist is very well trained and experienced they should do this anyway, and they should explain, that as an adult, you are entitled to an opinion and to say if something is not right for you or you want more explanation.

It would be great if you have found a really good match and a great therapist. Wishing you the greatest luck in the world with it all. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Deleted member 20280]

I would totally agree with the above posts. I had EMDR last year. I won't say EMDR is dangerous but I will say that it is a very powerful Therapy and needs to be used very carefully. You need to be totally confident in your therapist and be able to trust that they can properly look after you not only whilst in session but afterwards as well. The therapist needs to be confident that EMDR is not only right for you "the patient" but that you are right for it.

EMDR as I say is a very powerful therapy medium if used correctly. I have had a very positive experience of it's use but there are many who have used it who have had a very different experience of it's use.

It is not suitable for all sufferers but make sure you talk it over in depth before you agree to be it's use.

Thinking of you x :hug:

Laurie

 

[PureDogs]

@Taia12896

How does your therapist handle it when you have flashbacks?

My therapist would ask me what or how the trigger start or where it came from. Sometimes I am not able to provide because my memory isn't always clear - I felt it is block or vague with "spots" without clear answer.

Is it hard to talk to your therapist about your trauma?

Yes it is. Is it due to my self-confidence and trust? Yes.

And has EMDR been helpful or hurtful as to recovering from your trauma?

I have not tried EMDR yet and I have heard of it - I would wonder if it is worth it to try. I would wonder how it works.

What do you find helpful to do in therapy when it comes to your trauma?

Sometimes I felt that talking about it does helps and sometimes not. There are times that I felt that my therapist appears doesn't agree or understand. I even questioned myself if my therapist has expertise area on PTSD. Unfortunately, I had seen this T for almost 3 years and I don't know if it is good to move on to another one then start all over again.

 

[BeatenMan]

EMDR has been a life saver for me and hugely effective. But as stated, its not necessarly a fun or easy process. After an EMDR session, you typically get worse before you get any relief (or thats how I am). So definitly want some stabilty and ability to get grounded before starting and have total confidince in your T. Good luck, hope its helpful.

 

[Deleted member 20280]

After an EMDR session, you typically get worse before you get any relief (or thats how I am).

@BeatenMan you could not be more right. After every session I would take 2-3 days to feel I was 'on this planet'. I would be stuck mentally in the past as a result of a 'good' session. EMDR is a very aggressive yet effective form of therapy by it's design and format. It takes a broken mind and replays the traumatic events in the concious mind rather than leaving that event in the latent memory. All of our memories are stored no matter how large or small and can, with effective EMDR be unearthed.

Unearthing a traumatic event in such a way makes our cognitive self very aware of the event that traumatised us, forcing us consciously to 'Deal' with the event that has scared us so much we have literally buried it deep in our sub-conscious memory bank.

The aftermath of an effective session of EMDR is that we become very aware of that traumatic event and in cases we can actually feel that we have re-lived the event as a result. This can be very traumatic in itself but if our therapists are proficient with it's correct use and can support us in the aftermath then it really does work well.

This is why I impress on anyone considering EMDR to make sure that

A) it is the right therapy for them,
B) they are confident in the administering therapist.
C) They 'The Patient', are fully aware of all that EMDR is capable of doing for a sufferer.

My advise as I have said before is. Before even thinking of consideration in using EMDR, do the research, ask the therapist any niggling fears and make sure you are prepared.

Laurie

 

[BloomInWinter]

EMDR has been and continues to be very effective for me. I'm so glad I wasn't rushed into it until I had lots of good coping skills in place. Even now, sometimes the lingering effects are distracting me for many days until my brain settles down.

It's not pleasant but I'm so very grateful it's available to me.

 

[Healing Reins]

I'm just worried I'll have a flashback in front of my therapist and it will be awkward. I'm also scared that the emdr won't be effective and I don't want to waste my time..

 

[Healing Reins]

Also thank you all for your support and your words of wisdom! It means so much!

 

[Echo]

It is fine to start having a flashback in front of your therapist. If she is anything like mine, she will quickly intervene and bring you back to the here and now and teach you how to stop them.

Just take it session by session, and you'll soon see whether you find it helpful. I find it very comforting that someone understands and is there to listen.

 

[Deleted member 19804]

Any licensed therapist that's specialised in EMDR won't think any less of you if you get a flashback during a session. In a way, EMDR is a flashback, but a controlled one. The R stands for Reprocessing, because you process what happened to you in a better way than you did at that/those moment(s). It's scary and it sucks, but EMDR has helped a lot of people so far.

Make sure you feel safe enough with your T and that you trust him or her enough before you start EMDR treatment. If your therapist knows what they're doing, it will most certainly not be a waste of time.

Good luck!