Has EMDR Worked For Anyone With Childhood Abuse PTSD?

[Truthful_Whispers]

It had limited success with me. EMDR relies on memories or at least cognitive emotion in order to be useful. Much of my early childhood is repressed, so I hit a brick wall and couldn't productively continue the therapy.

 

[MIMI MAHOO]

My husband had one treatment and became rage filled. He had a childhood full of physical beating.

I read later that Dr Shapiro only recommends EMDR for single incident trauma not multiple abuse.

I prefer somatic experiencing or eft. Much gentler.

 

[anthony]

I read later that Dr Shapiro only recommends EMDR for single incident trauma not multiple abuse.

I think you read old content from Shapiro... as that is not her present stand on EMDR. Like all treatments, they evolve, as such, so do views on best use.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Before I had EMDR I was daily tormented with flashbacks, and the bad memories. I had multiple child hood traumas and teenage traumas that the memories would overwhelm me.

I had EMDR and I was ready and had an excellent therapist who initially made a list of my traumas, and after I was all done, I was no longer tortured and tormented by the painful memories, my mind had evolved and I when I do remember the memories now, I do not suffer as I did before and I was freed from them.

I think it really was a turning point for me in my life and for the better.

 

[vivalatapping]

every tharapy seems to work for some and not for other

 

[Jatamatta]

Hi "blindsided" and all my brothers and sisters out there,

EMDR absolutely worked for me. I changed myself at the root level of my being.

There are some caveats: before EMDR treatment I spent 12+ years in therapy (once a week for the first 10 years) AND spent 15 years in 12 step recovery AND developed a deep 8 year meditation practice. This recovery work was of great help in alleviating my conscious triggers. Both my therapists said I had done more internal work than anyone they had ever met. Although I had respites sometimes lasting a few years, childhood trauma drove my life on an unconscious level.

After some good fortune I had the opportunity to go into one of the best trauma programs in the United States. Although I had tried EMDR with my second therapist the sessions were plain vanilla. Once inside a treatment program I met an EMDR superstar and we rocked.

EMDR did not remove all my trauma. But it definitely removed the energy behind the event I was working on. What did it feel like? Empty. Emptyness! And a question... what was missing? Something was gone. I mean absolutely gone.

I agree that EMDR is challenging. IMHO it is not for everyone, especially early in recovery. At this point we haven't yet questioned ourselves deeply and shared our secrets with more than one other person, i.e a therapist, a sponsor, and perhaps a recovery group. EMDR is likely to bring up some shocking information. A newbie might react at level ten whereas someone like myself would go for the gas pedal. What makes us up inside is not that unusual. It's our distorted thinking and beliefs that screw us up. My PTSD is not the result of the actual events of 40 years ago, my PTSD is the energy inside me. If it is inside me, and not the perpetrator, then I can let it go... back to the perpetrator where it belongs. It's not my job to hold on to trauma.

In treatment I tried Somatic Experiencing which was more gentle and actually quite subtle. This may be a better treatment for some.

EMDR treatment came into my life as a direct result of spritual work I've done over 15 years. It was the right treatment at the right time for the right person.

Recovery does not happen in a day, a week, a year or even ten years. It's the work of more than one lifetime. Even so I am committed to continuing the work until I am done. No matter what.

Jatamatta
(whew, there are a lot of responses to this question)

Bless everyone confronting trauma today.

 

[forgottensore]

It's great to hear about a couple of your positive experiences with EMDR in challenging issues stemming from child abuse. I just started therapy due to issues I have with depressed mood, anxiety and interpersonal relationships which I believe to be connected to the prolonged emotional abuse in my childhood. Also, I just had my first EMDR session with my T yesterday. I didn't feel so much yet, except for the numbness and dizziness for most of the day today. I'm still hoping that there will be a progress either way and that the upcoming sessions will be okay.
As many others here on the board I do not remember a lot of my childhood in general which makes me scared that I might find out terrible things during the process and have to relive memories that I already locked away a long time ago. Still, reading from your experiences with the therapy so far and the many positive outcomes, I have hope that I can make it even if it becomes painful and difficult.

 

[Mim28]

I was in EMDR for an accident and my very last session was about a childhood trauma. I had sort of forgotten about it and then I dreamt about it the night before my last session. I told her and we worked on it. It took over an hour and I cried so hard. I hadn't really cried in any of the sessions. It worked at the time, but the incident affected me and I know it is one of my triggers.

 

[Aurora22]

I'm a severe childhood abuse survivor with PTSD and for me, yes, EMDR has absolutely helped and significantly changed my life with little relapse. I've dealt with more through EMDR than was ever possible with Exposure or CBT. Granted it's not even remotely close to an overnight success with severe trauma as you have to go at things at more than one angle and sometimes two or three times, but I wouldn't trade it. I don't have to see a therapist regularly anymore--just "maintenance" stuff when things feel too off--and I've done little but improve my symptoms dramatically since beginning treatment 2 1/2 years ago.

That said, I'm sure it's not for everyone. The therapy is intense, it's downright brutal sometimes, and it can absolutely cause an increase of symptoms especially when things aren't fully worked through yet and the processing had to be "paused" or something triggers the PTSD before the brain had cleared the trauma. I've had more nightmares and flashbacks than I'd care to recall, but from those side effects has come a life more beautiful than I could ever imagine. They were worth every single ounce of discomfort.

 

[SophiaWisdom]

Hi "blindsided" and all my brothers and sisters out there,

EMDR absolutely worked for me. I changed...

Your post was very comforting! I just started seeing an EMDR therapist though we're still in history-taking and while all my PTSD friends tell me it worked wonders on them, they have mostly PTSD and mine is CPTSD from lifelong child abuse. I have to admit reading these forums have scared the bejeezus out of me (hence it being past 6 a.m. and I haven't gone to sleep yet the night before therapy) but after reading this post I feel confident again.

I certainly have been working on my spiritual development and several healing modalities for decades so hopefully that makes a big difference.

I will say as contribution to this thread: the one thing I keep hearing is comfort level with the T. My T and I had a wonderful phone conversation and then amazing first session (just talk therapy) that saw instant improvement and healing immediately. I have trouble with sticking around too long with practitioners I don't feel comfortable with, so I try to remember to make sure to check in with myself and every person I encounter involved in my healing.

 

[Leighlee87]

EMDR was great for me. I used it for a recent trauma (endured because of my father), but of course when you have a lifetime of abuse behind you, EMDR doesn't always stick with that "ONE" issue. It did take a lot longer than it would for others. My mind skipped around a lot, so instead of sticking with the recent trauma, I would start there, then go back to a memory of age 4, then age 12, then 6, then back to that same memory at age 12, etc. It took forever to get through it all. I also needed to take a lot of breaks. So we would do a few emdr sessions, and then I would ask for a couple weeks off to recoup because I would start to feel too overwhelmed outside of therapy to function the way I needed to. In all, it took about 6 months, and I'm not sure if we will go for a round two at some point or not.

In many ways that first real emdr session tackling big T trauma was the hardest. I needed a lot of reassurance and comforting to get through that session, but I was really proud of myself by the time I walked out. Other hard parts included opening up about things I had deliberately neglected to tell her, sometimes the vividness of the memories took me by surprise and was really hard to deal with, and some memories came back up that I would have rather kept pushed back down. It's like someone else said above. The material feels a lot less distressing to think about. It still hurts if I sit down and really think about it, but I can have those thoughts and let them pass by without collapsing under them, which is a huge step forward. It has been the single greatest game factor in being able to start treating my eating disorder, I don't have to mask the pain by starving myself anymore. I don't have to punish myself, and those memories don't torture me all the time. So yeah, it was very much worth it for me. I'm so glad I did it.

 

[Laura84]

I did the EMDR treatment and am glad that I did. I was physically abused as a child up to the age of 6...

Thank you so much for this it gives me hope, my partner is having therapy and this proves it help

Yes I have had success!!! I am doing a second bout of emdr sessions working on a different part from multi...

Thank you this gives me great hope for my partner who is starting emdr