EMDR - Again!

[Banned]

Hey everyone,

I know this has been bantered around the site a bit, but I'm bringing it back in case anybody's experiences have changed.

I saw my therapist today and she brought up EMDR again - the last time was about six months ago. I was non-committal...I just don't feel comfortable with it, but yet, part of me is intrigued by it. I think mostly I'm afraid of doing it "wrong" and ending up looking or sounding like an idiot...is that possible?

I trust her completely and she did say I could stop at any time, she just wants me to try it...but I'd be interested in knowing if anybody has started/stopped since the last time this was discussed, and if so, what your experience was.

thanks.

 

[Into The Light]

if i had a chance to do it i would jump at it. emdr sounds fascinating to me. unfortunately i don't have experience with it so i can't tell you. would it be an option to tell her your concerns?

 

[Halo]

BG,

The first thing that I would want to know is whether she is actually trained in EMDR. I have done EMDR with two different therapists now and found out that one was trained and had the credentials and one was not and to be honest there was a big difference. If you go on this website you can find out if she is qualified http://www.emdr.com/clinic.htm.

There are also a few other threads on here about EMDR that you may want to revisit to refresh your memory about EMDR and the process. It can be helpful if you are working with a really good trained therapist that you trust.

Here are the other threads:

http://forum.psychlinks.ca/showthread.php?t=4069&highlight=EMDR

http://forum.psychlinks.ca/showthread.php?t=3847&highlight=EMDR

Also, BG if you want to know anything specific about my experiences, you can pm me.

Take care
:hug:

 

[Banned]

Thanks guys.

Nancy - she is level II trained - my last psych wanted to do it but I don't think he even had level I. I could be wrong, but that was my impression. My current psych is very experienced in it and I do trust her...maybe the idea will grow on me.

BBC - yup it's definitely an option to tell her my concerns, and I definitely will. I just wanted to do some more research before I decided if my concerns from six months ago still exist. I think they do, and yeah - I'll definitely tell her.

 

[Halo]

BG

That is good to hear that she is trained and that you trust her. Trust is a huge factor when doing EMDR.

I think that if you talk to her about your concerns and then maybe have her explain to you exactly what is going to happen in every detail so that you can get an idea of what EMDR for you specifically is going to entail that it might help to ease your fears of doing it wrong or looking like an idiot.

Has she explained at all what is going to happen and also what apparatices she uses? Earphones, hand buzzers etc?

 

[ThatLady]

Please keep us posted! I'll be interested to hear as you learn more.

 

[Banned]

I'll definitely keep you guys posted. I know she uses I think she said they are like two hand-held prongs...I dunno...the mystery of it all is what scares me. I was thinking about it this morning in bed and I'm willing to explore the idea with her as a start, but I'm not committing to actually doing it yet. I don't see her til next Friday so I guess we'll talk more about it then. My normal strategy is to not bring it up and hope she doesn't either but I'm kind of tempted to at least talk about it with her.

 

[Halo]

BG

I have used the hand-held prongs many times even times when I wasn't doing EMDR as I found them to help ease my anxiety when I was in my therapists office. Do you know what she uses for the eye movements like her hand or fingers?

As I said before, I have been through a lot of EMDR and have a lot of personal information that I could share with you especially if you have questions that may help you with things that you may want to ask your therapist next time you see her to help ease your fears. You can always PM me if you like.

If you choose to try it, do keep us informed.

 

[Banned]

Thanks Nancy.

I will admit it's been consuming my thoughts - I go between "forget it" to "I'm really tempted to at least try"...so I think the logical next step is to talk to her on Friday about my fears and see where we go from there.

She was practically pleading with me to try it (in a good way - no pressure though) which leads me to believe that she really believes it can help, and since I do trust her, I'm tempted to. And I like that she phrased it as doing it "with" her...that word and how she phrased it made a huge difference than if she had said to do it "for" her or anything else. Just the way she said it, I feel like we'd be doing it together, and she wouldn't be doing it "to" me...know what I mean?

 

[Halo]

Yes it is like when you are working with a therapist on an issue as opposed to feeling like you are working by yourself with them just sitting there and nodding in agreement. Sort of the same thing. Or as my bosses at work always say I don't work for them I work with them.

BG, to be quite honest I think that once you talk to her about your fears and maybe what is going to exactly happen from beginning to end (of one complete session of EMDR) then you have absolutely nothing to lose by trying it. If it works great then you will benefit from it, if not well at least it is an avenue that you have tried but if you don't try it then you may always wonder what if EMDR could have worked for you? I know that is what I thought and I never wanted to wonder what if?

Again, it is your decision but at least you are entertaining the idea which is great.

 

[Banned]

Yes it is like when you are working with a therapist on an issue as opposed to feeling like you are working by yourself with them just sitting there and nodding in agreement.

Haha yes it's the "therapeutic nod". Ya know, I can sit at home, look in the mirror, and nod to myself...and that would be free!! Thankfully I don't get that.

Yup - I'm definitely entertaining the idea and leaning towards at least trying it, but I may chicken out between now and then. I think part of the problem (with me) is that I'm still in "denial" (for lack of a better word) that I've suffered any trauma...but a couple visits ago she said I'm in very deep denial (I forget what word she used exactly - it wasn't denial, but it was essentially the same) so part of me is still saying "but there's nothing wrong with me" (and nothing could be further from the truth haha).

 

[Halo]

Haha yes it's the "therapeutic nod". Ya know, I can sit at home, look in the mirror, and nod to myself...and that would be free!! Thankfully I don't get that.

I like that...Therapeutic Nod....I got that nod for like 8 years and now I am nodless :lol: I don't get it anymore either and it is so nice. I actually have a person across from me that speaks and responds....what a great change

I hope you don't chicken out between now and then and if you really don't want to and think you might, maybe you can send her an email saying that you want to talk about it more on Friday so that way you can't chicken out. What better way then to email your therapist and give them the heads up that you want to talk about an issue so you don't "conveniently forget" to talk about something. I know....I do it all the time

 

[Banned]

I've thought about sending her an email, but I know she'll hold me to it then haha. It's completely consuming my thoughts, so there's no chance of forgetting it! Although, this Friday, I do have something else to talk to her about that's time sensitive so this might have to get put on the back burner for a week anyway.

I've been drafting an email in my head. Once it makes sense I'll actually write it out so she has a head's up that I need to discuss this more.

 

[Halo]

But you could send her an email now and tell her that after you talk about this time sensitive issue this week you would like to discuss the EMDR the following week....and having her hold you to it is the whole point of sending the email so you don't "conveniently forget" to talk about something....it is called avoiding (trust me I know and do it well ).....thank god my psych has email.

 

[Into The Light]

bg would it be an option at all to do the first EMDR session on something simple? just for her to demonstrate how it works and for you to get an idea what it's all about? maybe on a simple, non-threatening issue?

 

[ThatLady]

bg would it be an option at all to do the first EMDR session on something simple? just for her to demonstrate how it works and for you to get an idea what it's all about? maybe on a simple, non-threatening issue?

That's a really good idea, ladybug!

 

[Banned]

I think that's an awesome idea, LB!!!! I like it - alot!!!

 

[Into The Light]

i am glad bg! let us know how it goes, i'm very curious. from what i have read about emdr it could be really helpful in healing.

 

[K9]

BG
I had EMDR a few years ago. I too was very anxious about it and did some research on the net. That's how I found out about the different levels.
Personally, although I was very anxious about it I am glad I did it because a lot of stuff came up which didn't make sense to me at the time but it helped my therapist which in turn helped me.

For example, after one of the sessions when I was in my kitchen I had to run outside into the open space to breath. My therapist brought this up when I had a hypnotherapy session and everything seemed to fall into place.

Even though I was scared, because I trusted her, I gave it a go. Hope it works for you if you decide to try. Mine was not too scary as I was dealing with phobias and car accidents at the time.

Take care and good luck. Nite nite to all as I have to get up early for work.

K9

 

[Halo]

BG

I think that any good trained EMDR therapist would never start a first session of EMDR with a client on a real heavy issue but a relatively light one, at least that has always been my experience. In the past I have usually made a list of things that I want to work on and picked the easiest from the list to work on and that is where we have started so that I didn't feel like I was jumping into EMDR with both feet and going to get overwhelmed.

LB is right that starting with a less anxious provoking simple issue is probably best and that is probably what I think your therapist would have suggested anyway.