Has anyone participated in this type of therapy? My therapist is wanting to start it with me tonight in my session. I’m a bit anxious but also a little excited. I’m hoping it will help with some of the issues I had as a child (and still deal with). Then again, learning and doing something new is always a little scary to me.
Anyone with any experience with this that would like to share?
~sas
Angry Gray Rainbows 
I had a great experience with EMDR. It didn’t recover memories as much as it helped me connect some things that were upsetting me as an adult to some childhood issues. I had an excellent therapist who really helped me through some stuff.
Thank you…that is very encouraging to me!
EMDR isn’t really about uncovering memories. It’s about integrating traumatic experiences into the psyche in a way that allows them to become part of the background, rather than the foreground. My mom found EMDR very helpful in dealing with PTSD after being the victim of a violent crime.
I’m currently doing some work with IFS (Internal Family Systems) with someone also trained in EMDR, so it may come up.
I’m anxious to see what it might do for me so I’m open for anything at this point. Thanks for the input Meems.
I also benefited hugely from EMDR. It really changed my life. Got rid of my panic attacks, made it possible for me to do things I never thought I would be able to do without gripping fear.
That give me hope too. Maybe it will help with some of my OCD behaviors. Thanks Jackie!
I did a similar thing to EMDR, but it used hand held buzzers instead of eye movement. My therapist felt I wasn’t really emotionally in touch with an event, and suggested this as a way to involve both halves of my brain and hence unlock the emotions. It was a bit weird, but it really worked, and it allowed me to really feel the emotions surrounding that event. Granted, it wasn’t a traumatic childhood experience, so I can’t comment on how it might go for you.
That’s really interesting. I’m enjoying all the input. It makes me look forward to this experience. I know it won’t be something that takes only one time but I’m ready to start tonight.
Thank you Datura.
I have not experienced it personally, but I work with many women who have experienced trauma during birth and who have used it to help them deal with the PTSD afterwards.
I would say that I have heard very good things about its success rate in helping women integrate trauma in a way that’s less intrusive and disturbing.
I hope you find it helpful too. Keep us posted on what you think of it!
Thanks WRM~
I got this just before I entered my appointment and it helped, along with the other responses, to ease my concerns.
UPDATE:
I had my first EMDR session last night and it was ok. Nothing to write home about just yet but I could see where it might be quite helpful.
The biggest issue I had last night was my “safe place”. I could picture my safe place when we started but I was unable to go there when the emotions started feeling they were too much. The emotion pretty much took over. We had to stop a couple of times.
It will take some time but I think this might be a good thing for me. Thanks for all the encouragement!
~sas
I’ve done EMDR too and while i can’t say it turned my life around or something it definitely did help me calm some of the “noise” in my head and like an above poster said, helped me connect things that I wasn’t connecting before. Helped me face some scary things. That was really good.
mths~
Calmed the noise in your head? Oh my! That’s what I need to happen. There’s so much emotional stuff tied up in my thought processes that it’s sometimes hard to concentrate.
Thanks for telling me about your experience.