Hi I'm interested in emdr as a treatment for myself...
The psychiatrist said that it is not clinically proven as effective for cptsd..
I have however via this forum heard many talk of its helpfulness...
Does anyone have any research to back this up?
I took a quick look through the literature and here's what I came up with Boats:
Research Articles
Jarero, I., Roque-López, S. & Gomez, J. (2013). The Provision of an EMDR-Based Multicomponent Trauma Treatment With Child Victims of Severe Interpersonal Trauma, Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 7(1). https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgremdr/7/1/17
Korn, D. (2009). EMDR and the Treatment of Complex PTSD: A Review. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 3(4), http://www.coping.us/images/Korn_2009_EMDR_with_PTSD.pdf
van der Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E. & Solomon, R. (2010). Dissociation of the personality in complex trauma-related disorders and EMDR: Theoretical considerations, Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 4(2). https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgremdr/4/2/76 .
van der Hart, O. et al. (2013). Dissociation of the personality and EMDR therapy in complex trauma-related disorders: Applications in the stabilization phase. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 7(2). https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgremdr/7/2/81
van der Hart, O. et al. (2014). Dissociation of the personality and EMDR therapy in complex trauma-related disorders: Applications in phases 2 and 3 treatment. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, Volume 8, (1). http://www.onnovdhart.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/EMDRTSDPPhase.pdf
Book
Knipe, J. (2019). EMDR Toolbox, Second Edition: Theory and Treatment of Complex PTSD and Dissociation. https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BWtZDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=complex+trauma+emdr+therapy&ots=jG2FMrnesV&sig=h3oUQ7ps5nka45WFBdi8OM-NaTU#v=onepage&q=complex%20trauma%20emdr%20therapy&f=false
There isn't an abundance of empirical studies about the efficacy of EMDR for Complex PTSD and those there are are mainly by professionals who are invested in this particular treatment approach. There are far more studies about its use with PTSD which as we know is different from Complex PTSD.
Thank you so much kizzie I really appreciate your looking and posting
Kind regards
hey, bssr,
as you probably already know, i am an emdr therapist. with the right emdr therapist, one who fits w/ you and is trauma-educated, emdr can most certainly be helpful w/ c-ptsd.
many psychologists, psychiatrists, and even therapists lean heavily on empirical evidence, research outcomes, and what's they find in the literature regarding treatment outcomes. as kizzie mentioned, there is not a lot in the literature about emdr and c-ptsd. since it's not yet in the DSM (the bible of diagnoses), many in the mental/emotional help field don't even recognize it as something real.
kizzie gave a great list - thanks kizzie. all i can give you is my opinion and experience.
a trauma-informed therapist who is familiar w/ dissociation, anxiety, panic, etc - all those demon symptoms of c-ptsd - will usually be very helpful in dealing w/ someone suffering from c-ptsd. it may take some searching to find one, but they are out there. as you've seen on the forum, several members have had a worthwhile experience utilizing emdr as part of their treatment plan. others, not so much. but, the ones whose experience has been positive say that it's really, really helped them.
and, i also belong to an emdr therapists' forum where i've read about positive results re: using emdr w/ complex trauma. i've read about struggles that t's have had, also, in not knowing how to deal w/ it. the original emdr training was, as kizzie mentioned, focused on ptsd. it's the t's who have broadened their horizons to include getting educated about dissociation, etc., who have been the most helpful. many are only lately understanding that c-ptsd is a real thing. it's been frustrating getting the word out there and having it be accepted.
at any rate, w/ the right t, emdr can be invaluable in treating c-ptsd. it may take some looking around, a few try-outs, but if can be extremely effective. i hope any of this was helpful.
sending love and :hug:
I should add I had two bad sessions with an EMDR T who did not work on grounding and safety with me (and I had some 2-3 day long intense EFs), and then 2 yrs later about 6-7 sessions with T who did. It did help me to deal with the problem I went in for (depressed and EFs due to Trump's NPD), but I did have some anxiety which lasted about a month.
I am not a psychologist but FWIW my sense is that EMDR can help to deal with specific issues/memories, but b/c our trauma is cumulative and layered (in contrast to PTSD), it can stir up other trauma. As such, EMDR may need to be longer term that the usual 6-8 sessions with PTSD and need extra/continuous work on grounding & safety. And as you wrote San, the T must be aware of the differences between PTSD and Complex PTSD and trained/experienced in how to deal with these differences.
In the end more research about EMDR for Complex PTSD would help sort this.
Hi, I have cptsd and have had emdr it has worked amazingly well for some of my trauma where I just literally sit and cry through the whole thing, feel rubbish for a few days and then really good. But for some of my trauma especially the really early in life ones I don't see or feel anything, my therapist says this is more of an 'imprint' and can't be removed- I'm not actually sure what she means by this and am normally in such a state I don't think to ask!!! But like most things I e heard of people with life changing results and some with nothing at all.
Thank u both your replies are v helpful and re assuring..
I didn't know you were an emdr therapist San...
With my situation I'd be assigned (if at all) by the health service and so I don't know at this stage how much choice I would get.. But hearing how important it is for me to a t to be trauma informed and the grounding and stabilising that is needed helps me to be cautious and speak up for what I'd need. I have one particular incident that plays out problems in my life and so it may be I go and pay someone privately for treatment.. I have read that some t advertise as having all the training but actually can claim as a specialist when in fact the amount of training that has been taken is minimal.
Hi eyes so blue thank u for sharing your experiences is really helpful to hear..
Wonder what the imprint thing means....
Maybe as someone is so young it doesn't store in the brain in the same way?
Hi, been back for more emdr and feeling like an absolute mess today. The imprint is what happened to me when I was so young that my brain couldn't process it so it stays imprinted in my brain a bit like a photograph of what I saw but couldn't verbalise or process as I was too young to do so. Today I had to get all my memories and push them together and make a photo out of them then I had to imagine I was burning the lot, it was really intense and through my tears I managed to do it but am now left feeling so much worse than I did before I went in, am hoping it will pass. How are you getting on boats?
That sounds really rough, Eyessoblue. :hug:
I didn't realise you do imagination work in EMDR too. With the imagination work my T does with me, things can feel really bad during or afterwards but they always improve within a few days. I hope that is the case for you too.
I have posted elsewhere and have copied my EMDR post here for this, lower down.
For context - I have cPTSD and the following items - hypervigilance, depression, addictions, fight or flight response, developmental trauma, emotional manipulation from a young age.
Anyway, here is my EMDR post:
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Thought i would reply given i have been doing EMDR for circa 3 months now, at about twice a week (so near 25 sessions in).
EMDR is hard, and its very tiring, and can bring up real strong hidden feelings and events in addition to those you plan to address, so here are some of my stories to help get a sense of it, note that in 3/4 years of talk therapy i never cried with any of the 3 therapists i saw:
- i had not realised the depth of pain due to my mother leaving when i was 12, even though i had discussed it in talk therapy many a time. EMDR opened it back up, and had me in a strong fit of anger and tears, however i felt something lift later
- we regressed to when i was 1 years old, there was trauma there that had never come up in normal therapy. i cried for the trauma, but i also had happy tears knowing something was settled, it was beautiful and typing this brings that tearful joy up
- we regressed to pre the age of 3/4 and i realised that i actually had a grandfather who looked out for me, i had lost or not recognised those memories in the cloud of trauma, and it was a real blessing. Again, happy tears, and again never came up in therapy
- we are trying to also address an addiction i have had for over 20 years. I have resolved other addictions on my own before and with some therapy before, but this has been the hardest. EMDR has loosened its grip but its still hanging around.
- EMDR brought back up old ways of behaving, i got somewhat close to lapsing on one of the other addictions and that hung around for a while, this is because as others have said, it brings back up the trauma, so in turn it brings back up the ways of behaving around then, that i think is dangerous for some possibly, but i feel it was worth the risk.
- It does bring up depressive feelings, and it can wipe me out, but it has also lightened the load, i am aware of renewal through it
Anyway, i am clearly a fan and a work in progress. I read it doesnt work for everyone, but i do think its worth the effort when normal therapy hasnt worked. I regret a lot of my normal therapy, as i felt it cost a lot and spent a lot of time doing exercises for the sake of the therapists lack of knowing what to do with me. However, i am truly grateful for EMDR, it is not the miracle bullet i hoped it would be, but it has given me so much that i wasnt initially asking for, that has really helped.
hope that helps, it is a big decision, and i think for us that have struggled with normal therapy and have an assortment of traumas and coping mechanisms and defenses, it can be useful.
The big risk as i understand it, is disassociation, and splitting off - something maybe to look into before you begin. My therapist did some tests on me for it, and is sometimes cautious around it when we cover a deep topic
i have written far more than i intended, but hope this is a useful note to others looking into it.
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hope that is useful for you and others, but do feel free to ask
Thank you John ram I really appreciate your sharing and honest reflection..
Hi Boats and all. I've written a book here and really apologize for the long post. I know you were asking for resources. I wanted to share my experience so far with EMDR as someone with CPTSD and well, it got long... (Please move or remove if it seems appropriate to do so. Plus, I'm not sure if there should be a trigger warning. I didn't share details, but the work was deep.)
Thanks for posting on this everyone. I've had 2 EMDR sessions--after an installing resources session. These were with my T who I have been seeing for around 10 months, so we have a pretty sturdy relationship in place. For me, my memories are pretty fragmented and I had no idea of which pieces would be part of a feeder memory (the beginning) and everything is just twisted all up with everything else, so I wondered how we could even begin, much less how it could possibly work. We started with something that was a theme throughout my childhood and I was able to cry a little about it--which isn't something I can do otherwise. It felt good to release a little of that emotional pressure, but we got no way near resolving anything--which was fine. I loved the image of the container we created to store heavy thoughts/emotions/memories in until we were ready to look at them in our next session.
The thing I hadn't expected was the dislodging of a deeply suppressed memory. A memory I had snippets of in nightmares as a teen and young adult and signs of in fears I hold that I now see are related. I had one flash of this memory previously, but it seemed so random and fragmented, I assumed it was something that wasn't even real--part of a bad dream. The memory came through clearly, a big chunk of it anyway, over the next few days after the first session. I avoided it as much as possible knowing we were doing EMDR again a few days later. I dissociated to the extent I got lost on my way to work--don't remember the drive at all and had no idea where I was when I came out of it (turns out I was in the next town over). I hadn't experienced this in years and it really scared me.
So, we had a clear path for our next session and honestly I was anxious to try to process it. I was still questioning or perhaps more in denial that it was a real memory, but as soon as we started processing it, the emotion behind it was huge and intense and the memory fell so completely into place that it became clear in fact it was. We somehow managed to stay within my window of tolerance--I credit my T for guiding me with loads of compassion. By the end of the session, I was smiling. Something I don't do often. There was no negative cognition attached to this memory, which led me to believe this was in fact a "feeder memory"—perhaps a first traumatic event related to my CSA.
I felt elated afterwards, more myself than I have in a long time. I felt relief for two days. Then as it started getting closer to my next appt and maybe just because I was still processing such a deep memory, I started to feel intense anxiety. It was overwhelming and didn't pass. I felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest for the next week and finally got a scrip for a beta-blocker. This helped a lot actually, to take the edge off. We haven't had another EMDR session since—that was a month ago now. I definitely went into a huge EF and realized I need more resources to handle things that might come up after experiencing EMDR. I thought I was golden 'cause I literally sailed through the two-days following the EMDR session and actually, it really took me down. Or at least that which it released really took me down and honestly it was an extremely significant memory and in that I'm grateful for the experience.
I think this is a pretty classic example of the difference between processing complex trauma and single event trauma with EMDR. With so many layers of trauma and imprinted beliefs it's a multi-step process and for me, the memories all wrap into one another. I think this too is where having a skilled, mindful T makes a huge difference. Someone who really understands complex trauma, who can guide us to stay with the current memory or belief and help untangle the mess as we move through, slowly and carefully.
The remarkable thing is that I can think of that memory now and I don't feel it in my body, the terror namely, it's not physical any more. I still have feelings to work through regarding it, sadness, anger, but I don't think that would have been possible while it was still so physically all-encompassing, which a lot of my other memories still are.
We're planning on beginning EMDR again after taking time to install more resources. I have some fear around this, but I also want the relief I felt, that sense of actually being in my body and being ok. Talk therapy is helpful, but the physiological aspect of my trauma is intense and overwhelming. That's what I think EMDR can help me with the most, along-side relational therapy and perhaps other healing modalities as well, is to release that which my body has held onto all these years, completely disconnected from my heart and head.
:hug: and so much respect to all.
Quote from: Boatsetsailrose on May 22, 2019, 04:28:42 PM
Thank you John ram I really appreciate your sharing and honest reflection..
you are most welcome, and do reach out if you want to ask
there is someone on youtube i recommend -
Pooky Knightsmith Mental Health
this video
EMDR: 3 things I wish I'd known before I started trauma therapy
QuoteTalk therapy is helpful, but the physiological aspect of my trauma is intense and overwhelming. That's what I think EMDR can help me with the most, along-side relational therapy and perhaps other healing modalities as well, is to release that which my body has held onto all these years, completely disconnected from my heart and head.
This is my impression as well Moonbeam. As my T explained it to me, EMDR releases the trauma from short term memory where it is stuck (and this the reason it feels like it is happening to us in the present), and moves it into long term memory so we are able to process and integrate it both physically and psychologically. Unfortunately with CPTSD memories are intertwined or layered so the T really does need to be knowledgeable and trained in how to deal with this. And maybe as you suggest, adding other therapeutic approaches in tandum with EMDR would be helpful, particularly those which address both somatic and psychological symptoms.
Glad you asked questions about EMDR Boats, this thread has turned out to be quite helpful :thumbup:
I know I am coming to this thread late, so hopefully this is still helpful :Idunno:
As someone who experienced emdr for the better part of a year in combination with a few other modalities to help balance it, I do really believe emdr can be effective for cptsd. I no longer qualify for the diagnosis but I did when I began emdr. Like everyone else though, the T must know what they are doing and understand the nature of complex trauma for it to work. Grounding and resourcing becomes even more important with this modality. My T and I work together for nearly a year before we did emdr. A ton of that was grounding resources and getting me to a stable enough point I could handle the processing between session. It did bring up repressed memories and feelings for me, which occasionally knocked me out but I was always able to talk to my T so we could go at a pace that was healthy for me specifically. For me, I really think emdr was a huge piece of why I have healed as much of my past as I have. I went through years of really horrific abuse, and feel like I processed a lot of my worst feeder memories in emdr. It is truly intense and difficult, so be ready for it and communicate your needs very clearly to a well trained t.
Hope that is still helpful :hug:
Tks for posting about this Elph, I was hoping you would b/c I know your experience has been positive overall. Your post really emphasizes how important it is to have a well trained T who prepares you well and takes things at your pace.
I personally would go back for EMDR as it did lift me out of being so reactive to Trump's NPD chaos & drama and I did not have an EF when I saw my NPDM a week or so ago. :cheer: I credit EMDR with that. Once we move I want to try somatic experiencing first though so will see if there's any health insurance left.
I thought I'd add my feelings on EMDR too... I have therapy once a week, and EMDR with a different therapist once a week. We just happened to discuss how many sessions I've had so far - twenty six...
If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said EMDR doesn't do much... I grew up being abused by my parents, and could barely function... But as I worked on my abuse in EMDR every week, I started to realize that I could think about some of my memories without crashing and burning... They're just memories - no more emotion around them...
If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I'd ever get over my CPTSD, I would have said, "no way"... One year later, and I'm totally open about having (C)PTSD with friends and family, and I actually think some day I'll be over this... But at this point, I get told all the time that I seem like a different person - more self-assured, and more relaxed... I'm not over it yet, but I will get over it...
So it definitely works for some of us with CPTSD...
What a positive post surviving...
Thank u for sharing.. I'm real pleased its had such a good outcome for u
I'll be the voice of negative experience. EMDR was done in therapy with me, and all it did was make me very unbalanced, hypervigilent, headaches, prone to dissociation, nightmares, agoraphobic. My therapist and I thought we were going slow, but it was never cathartic for me. I had dread going to therapy. She was a specialist trauma therapist, and so I believed that this was the process and I had to trust her and just "go through" it to beat it. But I can see now she was not reading my signs and just moving ahead whe it was very harmful. I have since learned EMDR is potentially very upsetting and harmful if not done after perhaps years of grounding. Even a so called specialist can be blind to your signals. It really makes me angry at this point.
bix, as an emdr therapist, i'm really sorry for your experience. that should never have happened. unfortunately, even the so-called 'specialists' aren't always informed about complex trauma. i don't blame you for being so angry - i've had incompetent t's in my life, too, and they did set me back as i had to recover from the trauma at their hands that was piled on the past traumas i was already dealing with.
sending a gentle hug if you want. i hope that never happens to you again - you deserve so much better therapy than what you've had.
Bix there is an EMDR association (https://www.emdria.org/) if you want to let them know what happened so they can speak to the T. It might help you to have some control over the situation and certainly it would be beneficial for them to hear what happened with you.
Also wanted to let you know there are some good resources for locating a trauma T, spotting ones that are questionable, and reporting T's here - https://cptsd.org/forum/index.php?topic=2518.0.
Hi Bix thank u for sharing its good to hear all sides.. Sad to hear it was hard for u..
My understanding too is people can get emdr trained on a fast route so debatable the quality of that.
The service I am going to doesn't offer emdr so its out of the equasion for me. I want really feeling I wanted to anyway..
I've chosen CAT instead and feel happy ill be working on the relational healing as this is an area that is calling
imprinting is the act of bonding that takes place at life's earliest stages. The dictionary definition is the recognition of a parent or some other object of habitual trust
I'm with Bix. I tried EMDR with an EMDR specialist and it just made me worse.
The problem was compounded by the fact that so many see this is a miracle treatment/cure so negative results get pooh-poohed too easily. On top of that, I was told that I was not responding properly not because the treatment was wrong for me but some combination of I was in denial and/or resistant to being treated (at all) and/or I just needed to find someone who did it properly, I was seeing a therapist so therefore could not know what I was talking about, and/or anything other than the fact that EMDR just made me get worse instead of better. Essentially I was being gaslighted by the people who were supposed to be supportive of me and my treatment needs.
Be careful of EMDR and know that it might work for many but it is also harmful to many of us. If it works for you then more power to you. However, if it is making you worse then it is OK to say so and try something else, no matter what anyone tells you about it.
p.s. I have responded very positively to sensory motor psychotherapy so all of the baloney trying to make it my fault is just that, baloney.
Quote from: I like vanilla on December 31, 2019, 06:50:26 AM
all of the baloney trying to make it my fault is just that, baloney.
I agree, that is all baloney! I'm sorry it happened to you. Also all that "resistant to treatment" - I've had that thrown at me too. It's baloney. Find the right treatment combined with right therapist for
you and there won't be "resistance". ime anyway.
i am an emdr therapist, and i know it''s not always going to work for everyone - just like 12-step programs don't work for every addict. i'm working w/ an emdr therapist right now, and she's going at my pace, which i think is important from the beginning.
to say that you're resistant is a cop-out on the t's part. there are no resistant clients, only t's who don't know how to deal w/ the pain, fear, and traumatic resilience of a client. baloney is a great word for it!
honestly, this saddens my heart to the core when people are blamed for not being able to progress in therapy, no matter what kind of therapy it might be. it is never the client's fault. it may be the wrong fit between client and t, or between client and treatment type, but there should (and i use that word here carefully) never be blame placed on the client. never.
sending love and hugs to all of you, hoping everyone finds their own best way to diminish this c-ptsd beast. :grouphug:
I just wanted to add that what is so important is first finding an emdr therapist who is experienced in trauma and one that you can relate to, if you don't have a good connection with the them , it won't work you have to be able to trust and believe for it to do so. On the nhs you can get emdr but you only get offered so many sessions and if you've got cptsd the chances are you'll need loads and time is not on your side..... I had an amazing nhs emdr therapist but got up to 12 sessions at a time, most only get around 8, this isn't even enough to gain your trust, so would def go private if you can afford to, otherwise it's backwards and forwards and waiting list after waiting list, I tried private but didn't pick a great choice so ended up finishing with her, it does work but the importance of finding the right person to help is top of the list. I'm going to reapply and go back to my nhs therapist but know I have a long journey ahead of me.
i agree w/ you, esb - the relationship between client and t is really important. it's really a shame that w/ nhs you are so limited. a lot of insurance companies in the u.s. do something similar - they determine how many sessions they're willing to pay for. like, 12 sessions for depression, 8 or so for anxiety, stuff like that. at least, that's how it used to be. i've been out of their game so long i don't know if it's changed, but i hope so. it's the clients who are always the losers.
good luck in getting back to the t who helped you. love and hugs! :hug:
Hi, Eyessoblue. Like San Magic, I hope you get more therapy with the therapist who you feel most confident in.
I remember we talked a lot about EMDR in the past. I didn't feel it had helped me at the time, but now I can look back, I am starting to believe that the treatment itself did have an positive effect. I didn't trust the therapist fully, especially as she was so definite that I needed to forgive my parents. But I do think that the EMDR set me on a path to healing. It was gradual, and mixed with the trauma of my husbands illness and death. But something changed. I stood up to my parents, gained much more self belief and so much better self esteem. I wonder if emdr finally shifted my terrible fear of them, that was instilled, I suspect, from birth.
Interestingly, a psychiatrist I saw earlier in the year was shocked that I had had emdr. It's all very complicated, isn't it?
Libby xxx
Hi Libby, yes I can like you look back and see how much it's helped me and definitely benefited me massively in so many areas which is why I'm keen to have more but with the same therapist I had originally if the nhs allow me back....
I hope you're doing ok.x
Quote from: Kizzie on May 17, 2019, 05:26:38 PMI am not a psychologist but FWIW my sense is that EMDR can help to deal with specific issues/memories, but b/c our trauma is cumulative and layered (in contrast to PTSD), it can stir up other trauma. As such, EMDR may need to be longer term that the usual 6-8 sessions with PTSD and need extra/continuous work on grounding & safety. And as you wrote San, the T must be aware of the differences between PTSD and Complex PTSD and trained/experienced in how to deal with these differences.
In the end more research about EMDR for Complex PTSD would help sort this.
:yeahthat:
I wouldn't consider doing EMDR with a therapist who is not cptsd-trained never mind trauma-informed. I realise that unfortunately some countries' medical systems don't allow patients to be that picky, but mine does. I also have the good luck that EMDR (or whatever trauma processing I'm doing) is integrated into a greater plan and I may well be in weekly therapy with the same therapist for 2 years or more. I suppose what people refer to as 'talk therapy' on here is part of that.
I'm bumping this old thread because of a question about EMDR; there is useful information and experience on this thread. It was good for me to read too since I'm hoping my current T will consider EMDR with me. My old trauma T was too wary to do it with me. He tried brain-spotting once but it had no effect, I didn't react at all. I think he said it was too early.
I'm also interested to read other people's reactions and progress using EMDR on here. Because some of those sound mighty similar to what I've experienced during other methods of trauma-processing. Especially similar to what
Surviving mentions about the memories still being there but the emotions around those being reduced or removed. That was what a lot of the imagination work I call 'screen processing' did for me. Idk if it's a known method even in my country. It's possible my old trauma therapist adapted a somewhat similar method especially for me.
Hi Blueberry,
Thanks for bumping this. It's interesting to read how peoples' memories are stored like the and the anxiety around them, where you're not sure if it's really real etc, and how some people experienced it as "not doing much." Perhaps this is the same arena as you're talking about? I find that I have memories of events but there is no emotion connected to them ie yes, my m did used to go out at night and leave me home alone when I was six/seven, but this was just a thing that happened. I didn't remember how I felt about it at the time. It's interesting when emotions show up as well as they're usually disconnected from "recognition" ie I' feeling x because of x. I think this form of cognition, or possibly "control" is why I'm reluctant to do DBR (a deeper (?) form of EMDR).
When I have done EMDR in the past, I've had a lot of physical reactions (shaking etc) that just seem to come up and aren't necessarily tied to a cognitive memory either. I guess part of the "challenge" is to stay with the fright/fear (?) that is coming up in the body.
I went back through the thread as I was interested to hear Surviving's comments as well and I think perhaps they were referring to what happens after EMDR where the memory comes up and you don't have a reaction to it?
dolly
Blueberry, I have read t b rough some of this from the beginning and it is tremendously helpful. I don't have time, at the moment, to really dive in, but thank you so much for bumping this!!!!
I will spend some time later today looking at the links and reading the comments. Again, thnks!!!!!!
hi, all,
as many of you know, i'm trained in EMDR and have utilized an EMDR-trained therapist for the past 5+ yrs. altho it was bumpy at times, mainly cuz of my alexithymia (which she was uninformed about, so i had to explain it to her, and what some of my extra emotions/body responses were all about) i found EMDR to be massively helpful. and, yes, it was integrated with talk therapy, which i was able to use as a stabilizing component and for realization moments.
we did have to adjust some of the EMDR processing to accommodate my too-much emotional/body responses, and that was done via the 'flash' technique - still EMDR protocol and realm, but it helps bypass emotional 'flooding' that can be overwhelming. it also helped reduce the terrible body responses i'd have due to too much of an emotion or many emotions being released at once.
i agree w/ what was written about EMDR and complex trauma - it can take longer than the 6-8 weeks often referred to when talking about trauma therapy. EMDR was originally tailored for PTSD - the idea of ongoing/relational trauma is still not always understood in the therapy world. luckily i had a therapist who was familiar, altho not fully informed, but was willing to learn. i have made a lot of progress in the past 5 yrs. and, for one, am not gobbling down meds anymore in order to get thru a day. big difference.
tailoring therapy to the individual is key, in my opinion. having a therapist who is willing to look outside the box, listen, listen, listen to their client, and adjust accordingly is so important. therapists are supposed to be guides to helping us get to our goals, support systems, and someone who is doing everything possible to help us overcome and heal from our traumas. that includes admitting some trauma is beyond their skill set, and referring a client to a therapist more in line w/ their particular needs. and, as far as i know, the client is never wrong. if the therapy isn't working out, it's not the client's fault. something w/in the realm of the therapy needs adjusting.
if there are any questions, feel free. EMDR is all about the client, and begins when they walk thru the door. if you are uncomfortable with the way the eye movements are being done, it's ok to speak up, ask for an alternate. some people can't tolerate them at all (light machine, moving fingers, wand, etc.) and alternate tapping on hands, knees, or even by the client doing it themselves on their armrests, etc. is also productive. it's very adapting and adaptive, and there are several protocols in the EMDR realm which have been used with success, such as 'flash' mentioned above, or progressive counting. there may be more i'm not aware of.
i'm only speaking from my experience as a client and a therapist, and what i wrote are only my opinions. EMDR may not be for everyone. i hope it is helpful to anyone who gives it a go. best to everyone here. love and hugs :hug:
Just wanted to say that my post is only my opinion of EMDR (i.e., I'm not a professional), and since writing that post in 2019 I've met a few people who have had good success with EMDR. One is a professional actually working in the field of trauma and they speak highly of the results for them.
I think now that professionals are becoming more knowledgeable about CPTSD and trained to treat it, it's less of a hit or miss therapy. The first two times I tried it there was no grounding work done and I was left to my own devices afterwards. I was quite badly triggered. I then tried again with a different T who used it quite a lot with PTSD. The number of sessions was still shorter than I would have liked because we targeted a specific traumatic issue I was having, and overall it did help with the issue. She did the safety/grounding work with me and no big triggering this time.
So, I would suggest it's best to read up on EMDR like any approach and also find out how experienced your T is in treating CPTSD.