Shellcrusher

Has anyone ever worked through the EMDR sessions before?
If so, what did you think and how were the results?

Tuffgirl

EMDR Institute, Inc. for those who don't know what this is.

My counselor does this, but I've not felt the need to try it. I know I have some spouse-of-an-alcoholic PTSD type issues but I just don't think its severe enough to look at EMDR right now. I have faith that I can work through these with the steps and my counselor.

I know this is used with good results for Veterans and people who have experienced severe traumas.

blkeyedszn

I just finished two sessions of EMDR. MY mind is particularly closed off, as I tend to bury my emotions, but even though it really felt like not much was happening, all of a sudden I was connecting dots and making sense of things in my life that I never had before.

The weirdest part, the part I told my therapist I was the most afraid of, was actually getting the strength I wanted so badly to leave my husband.

My husband moved out last week.

I still don't know what I think about it, but I have felt a hell of a lot stronger since trying it.

tjp613

Thanks for the thread. I would love to hear about anyone's experience with this modality. My 17 yo daughter has recently been diagnosed with major & chronic depression, anxiety disorder and emerging BPD. I would be particularly interested in hearing how EMDR helped (or not) anxiety and performance issues.

She's in psychotherapy and DBT now, but maybe EMDR would be helpful later on if/when she gets 'stuck'.

Buffalo66

I was sexually assaulted as a child.
For years I acted out. I had a difficult time worrking through the PTSD because I did not remember.
When I was 30 I was desperate. I went to a psych who specialized in EMDR.
I made sure she felt I was a good candidate for it.

I worked w it for abt 6 months, biweekly. We did not do the process itself every session. We would do a session and it would unfold... On it's iwnvtimeframe.

Before EMDR I suffered from severe constant panic disorder. It sprung up for me overnight in my late 20s. Don't know the trigger.
I had horrible sexual flashbacks, I was moody and occassionally suicidal.

After two sessions my panic disappeared. After 4 I stopped having serious mood swings.
From my perspective, I had made recollections of things that a part of me always knew. The emdr integrated the buried unconscious material that was driving my trigger life into my conscious everyday life. I cannot explain this. The revelation of the new "old" information was not jarring or overwhelming then. It just was like someone turned on the light and I could see what was in the dark room.

A very positive side effect of the EMDR work for me;
whenvi reactivsted, or re acknowledged or unstuvk the repressed memories that were causing md to act out through daily aversion, I also came into contact with some ling lost positive pieces of my past. It was incredibly joyful to have good memories, because I had framed everything as terrible, but it was all jumbled in with the stuck trauma.
It is a process of unraveling. I did not feel overwhelmed at that time.

Now, in 2007, I went to a local EMDR specialist in my city. I wanted to specifically look at the traumas that are at the core of my codependency, self destruction around feeling unable to leave my A who was very very abusive then.
We started doing the work, but at that time, the issues overwhelmed me. After 2 sessions I told the doc I needed more time. I had begun to feel more than a little unsteadied by the work.

I don't know if I just gauged it that way because now, being a mother, I feel like I need to stay grounded, or what.

I recommend EMDR.
The person should be in goof hands.
I suggest a facilitator with proven experience.
There will be movement.

Good luck

Buffalo66

PS;

the panic symptoms never came back.
I will ocassionally feel a little shaky, and I know the feeling, but it never busts into full panic.
I kind of cannot convey how much emdr saved my life, unless you really know how panic disorder means a life of terror.
I have not had a number 5 panic attack since that second session, I have had feelings that hovered around a number 2.

Responding to this thread has me thinking abt calling the doc and reapproaching the work. Maybe I am ready to cough up that final hairball....

Are u asking for yrself or for yr wife?

Shellcrusher

Thanks for sharing your stories, everyone. I'm happy I posted this. As you can guess, I was at the therapist yesterday. I've been seeing her for a few years now and we are making excellent verbal progress.

I'm not exactly sure what I would work on if I decided to go through an EMDR session. I was told that my cognitive abilities are very strong but perhaps it gets in the way of my emotions. Perhaps I use that strength to cope with/not deal with my true feelings. She suggests that the EMDR would help me move some trauma out of my thinking brain and into my emotion part which should help me deal with my current boundaries and decision making. It was suggested that I may be unable to make the correct/best decision because I'm unable to feel what is wrong.

The kicker for me is the price. My therapist is already very expensive and the EMDR kicks it up a notch or 10!

I was told that she's experienced close to 100% success with her patients and she's worked with hundreds. That is interesting.

Keep the stories coming if you feel like sharing. I have some old skeletons in the closet and perhaps some that I don't even know about.

tjp613

This would make me suspicious right here. There is no treatment modality anywhere in the field of psychiatry that can claim this kind of "success rate".

Do plenty of your own research before you plunk down your hard earned money.

Shellcrusher

I trust very few women in my life.

My therapist has my complete trust. She's earned it over two years, so there's no need for me to become suspicious of what she's telling me.
If the general success rates range between 80-90% is it so hard believe some therapists are better than others? Is it that hard to believe her clients have been successful?

Keep in mind that success lays largely in the hands of the patient. I was told that I must be prepared to be vulnerable to my emotions and what may come up and if I'm not, then the process may not be beneficial to me.

I am sorry to respond like this but I owe my therapist a great deal of respect for all the work she's done with me. Believe me when I say that seeing a therapist is the single last thing I ever wanted to do in my life.