Update on EMDR

[Cherry]

Hi, I'm just giving an update of EDMR. I will be seeing someone in February for this type of treatment.

From all that I have read, this seems to be very positive, especially since I have my counsellor involved. I just didn't feel like going through my history one more time again, and he promised me he will relay my history through to this other therapist.

We will be seeing each other untill I can see this person in Feb. I really appreciate this, and realize that he does care for me or he woudn't do this without charge.

I will definately let people know how this type of therapy works. I really have a lot of confidence in this. I sure hope that I am not let down.

 

[Cat Dancer]

I'm excited about this for you. I hope it goes well.

 

[Cherry]

Further Update on EMDR

I've been bumped up to this coming Tuesday for EMDR Treatment with a Registered Clinical Psychologist. Looking forward to this with a bit of trepidition. I have an open mind to this type of treatment but am not sure what it entails.

All I know is that I am a very easy candidate for hypnosis. I couldn't believe how quickly I became hypnotised. I tried it for quiting smoking and it actually did work for several days, however my grandfather passed away within the first week and I started smoking again as I was pregnant with my middle child and didn't want to drink. Oh well perhaps the lesser of two evils.

Will keep you posted on this treatment.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

EMDR may involve an element of suggestibility but it really isn't anything like hypnosis.

 

[Cherry]

Went For EMDR Assessment Today

Hi,

I went for an initial consult re: EMDR today. Found Psychologist to be very helpful and informed. My counsellor had spoken to him regarding my past and I had given him permission to pass my file along so I wasn't going into this session and having to relate my whole history again. I found this very comforting for me.

Although I will not be starting EMDR treatment right away, we will have likely another 2 or 3 cognitive treatment sessions before treatment will begin. I found it reasuring that I was to be assessed for treatment, because of course it is very costly.

It was a very interesting session for me. Initially I was frightened of this process, but now I feel a lot more comfortable. I was very fortunate to have two supportive people in the same vicinity. My husband sat in the reception area, and my counsellor was also in the same office and had a visit with my husband (socially).

The only real bummer, is because of my past, we are looking at a 2 year length of time. However, my husband and I discussed this and decided that 2 years really is nothing considering the fact that I have suffered for 41 years already.

Anyways, cheers for now and I will keep interested people posted.

 

[HA]

Hello Cherry,

Good luck with your EMDR treatments and yes, please keep us posted on your experiences with it. I'm interested in learning more about EMDR.

 

[ThatLady]

Yes, do keep us updated, Cherry. I'm very interested to hear how this works for you. )

 

[Cherry]

EMDR Update 2

Hello to anyone who's interested!

I went for a second session today with psychologist (let's call him "Bill" from now on in) who will be performing EMDR session.

Firstly we worked on relaxation excercises. I am always "keyed" up. Often I find if I think about being tense I can actually feel my muscles being taut, and I try to talk myself into relaxing them. Of course for me this doesn't last long.

Right now what Bill and I are focussing on is peacful places. ie, going to a place where I feel peaceful and relaxed. We discussed this in detail as to what I saw, imagined, felt, heard, time of year, smelled etc. in order to take me back to this place.

For me this was easy as I have a place that I go to that I use often when I have difficulty going back to sleep at night. These peaceful places can be real, imagined or even something that you saw in a movie or magazine that you imagine brings you peace.

After discussion of this and my closing my eyes and going back to this peaceful place, we decided that this would be a good resource to be used in future sessions.

Bill then used his apparatis, that is a strange looking rectangular box about 4' long and 4 inches high that is mounted on what looks like a camera tripod. There is a headset attached which look similar to a stereo headset. At first it looked quite ominous.

After everything was set up, I put the headset on and Bill set the lights in motion. The lights went from left to right. I had a difficult time focussing on anything other than following the lights. At first I thought the headset would play soothing music, but they did not. There was a beep going off in each side of the earpieces at a kind of tick, tock manner with each tick and tock sharing exactly the same beat and tone.

Bill then asked me to think about my peaceful place while listening to the beeps. When did this excersise several times until I myself felt comfortable.

Bill then asked me to rate an experience on a rate of one to ten which disturbed me. I chose a rather simple disturbance which rated on a scale of about 3. He then again asked me to think about my peaceful place then think about the #3 disturbance. We did this exercise several times and then he turned on the beeps that go from left to right or vice versa and we started off with the peaceful place then introduced the disturbance. I went through this excercise several times. Bill would stop the excersice to see how I felt. On most occasions, I felt quite relaxed.

We ended here, and will take up where we left on during our next appointment.

It is very important to establish peaceful safe places in our mind so that during the actual EMDR treatment that we have a place to go when things get scary and emotional.

If I can think of anything more I will post. If not I will post again in two weeks.

 

[Cherry]

Addendum to EMDR Update 2

One very important feature of the therapy that I recieved today, was the fact that I found some sense of relaxation.

The therapist also noted relaxation in my body parts. Ie, my shoulders dropping slightly due to less tension, my head falling to one side indicating comfortableness, etc.

I left there with a feeling of having a very restfull sleep.

 

[ThatLady]

This sounds really promising, Cherry. Thanks so much for sharing this experience. I'm very anxious to hear how things progress for you. I'm thrilled it went so well during this initial visit. )

 

[Cherry]

Well today, is Wednesday, February 23rd and I went for a second EMDR treatment yesterday.

Again we are focussing on building resources ie. peaceful places, people in my life that I respect the most and their qualities which I find most admirable.

During this session, we focussed on my relationship with my husband, which for me is very positive. We have been together for 23 years and are still very much in love.

Of course there have been difficult times, and thank God for me he is a very patient man.

I was introduced to a scent that I really liked and during the EMDR session found to be a comfort. We worked on using techniques for coping with ED that I found to be quite useful.

He suggested that when I felt like binging, I just take a moment to think about how much my husband loves and supports me and to feel his arms around me and how good that feels and what kinds of things he would be saying to me to support me, wanting to transfer my pain to him while sitting with my feet flat on the ground and my arms crossed my thighs in a criss cross fashion and tapping my thighs with the same tempo/beat that I hear during our EMDR session. With the scent and the tapping movement even without the EMDR hook-up this did have a comforting affect. (My husband does not know or have any idea that I am still suffering bullimia after all these years.)

All through this session, I was feeling a sense of calm, almost to the point of falling asleep. When I left I was actually yawning.

These type of resources are only to be used when we begin dealing with the ugly stuff, but I am beginning to feel a sense of comfort knowing that I will be able to recall these last 2 images to mind in order to comfort myself.

I go again in another 2 weeks, and again will keep you posted. Any questions, please feel free to ask.

Love, Cheryl

 

[Cherry]

EMDR

Hi all!

I've been to another EMDR session on Tuesday, March 8. I found this session quite interesting.

We are still not getting to the nittie, grittie or things, but again focussing on positive.

During EMDR sessions, I find that I get very tired. This is because I am in a very relaxed place. This particular session we did the opposite which is what I found interesting.

Again, I find that I feel very tired during these sessions. This time we focussed on what made me fell awake and alert. Funnily enough I could actually feel the change from feeling tired to feeling alert. I was very aware of this feeling while using the headpiece that beeps from left to right.

We are going very slowly into this process, so that when I can confront the demons on my back I will be prepared. I have faith in this treatment, especially after Tuesday's session.

Will keep on posting.

Cheryl

 

[HA]

Thanks for the update, Cheryl!

I find this EMDR very interesting. Hope you are doing okay lately.

 

[Cherry]

March 22

Hi, went to see psychologist yesterday. Didn't do any EMDR but made a top ten list of things that we will be working on.

Started with a list of experiences that I have had in the past that I find upsetting and rated them on a scale of 1 - 10. Had to think of experince and rate it at how I felt emotionally at that moment during session.

Funnily enough some of the items on my list that I though would be biggies were not necessarily rated very high emotionally at this time.

We will start working with 1 item at a time and reprocess that experience using EMDR. By time I left session yesterday, even though some of my items were not rated very high, when I was alone in my car driving home I began to debrief the session and became quite emotional. I didn't know if I wanted to scream or cry first.

Well, this just tells me I have a lot of work to do yet. Today I am back to feeling my same old. I am looking forward to my next visit so we can start working on reprocessing.

 

[healthbound]

EMDR?

Hi Cherry,

I enjoyed reading your updates and wondered if you continued with EMDR.

Thanks

 

[Banned]

Hi Cherry,

Thanks for this thread. My therapist told me yesterday that he thinks I may have PTSD and he would like to try EMDR with me. I"m a little bit nervous - I'm not sure if I want to try it or not, but it helped being able to read your account and what it involves.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

There really isn't anything scary about EMDR, BG. People either find it neutral and a bit silly, or they find it incredibly "de-stressing" and freeing. When it works, it's often quite dramatic. It doesn't always work, of course...

 

[Banned]

Thanks Dr. Baxter. I'm leaning towards "silly" and maybe even a little bit hokey, but I can't really make a judgement until I decide to try it - if I decide to try it. We'll probably talk more about it on Saturday. He said I'd be a prime candidate, so who knows...