Emdr??

[Shantimama]

Does anyone here have any experience with this? My therapist has recommended trying this and I am curious about others' experience with it.

[babylovex2]

DH had huge success with this.

After surviving 9/11, he was having lots of nightmares, visions and memories. Nothing was helping (therapy, SSRIs). After a few sessions of EMDR - maybe 4-5 - he started sleeping fine. He has not had visions or nightmares since. Also, images and videos from 9/11 do not affect him like they once did. It seems that EMDR severs the emotional responses that trauma imprints on the brain. According to him, it was a simple & effective solution, when nothing else worked.

Best of luck... based on his experience, I'd highly recommend it.

[lotusdebi]

*

[Shantimama]

babylove, I am so happy that it was effective for your dh! Thanks for your reply.

My therapist has said that it is very effective but that the actual time spent doing it and the time between those sesssions can be very intense. We are waiting until some other things in my life settle down before opening up all the traumatic stuff - any more intensity right now just might break me. I have to admit I am a little nervous about doing it.

[mamalex]

I have experience with EMDR for sexual abuse flashbacks that were affecting my relationship at the time. It worked very well- for me it felt much less intense than hypnotherapy, believe it or not. In my EMDR therapy, I did not "have" to talk to the therapist or anything. I didn't have to "try" to come up with a memory. Things came and went. That's about the only way I can explain. Flashbacks are a bitch, and you can have them visually or not. You can have them without realizing it. For me, I kept seeing my perpetrator (ex-stepdad) when I would try to be intimate with my boyfriend. It really seemed to help. The hard part about EMDR is that when your session is done, you don't really know if it helped. It takes time. It all takes time. I hope this helps!

[lotusdebi]

[lisamarie]

Five years ago, after a very traumatic incident that I witnessed, I suffered w/PTSD. After trying meds., support groups and counseling, nothing was helping me w/sleeping or the flashbacks. I found a therapist who offered EMDR and I truly feel that it gave me my life back. I highly recommend it.

Good Luck~

Lisa

[Shantimama]

Thanks for your feedback. Life is a little more settled and I don't think I can leave all this stuff on the back burner much longer, so it looks like I'll be trying emdr sooner rather than later. I hope it helps.

[Maurica]

I also had great luck with EMDR. For me it was gentle and loving. It allowed me reconnect a memory with a positive emotion. My therapist recommended a book called EMDR by Shapiro and Forrest, published by Basic Books. I think I skimmed it and read some case studies, it's been a few years.

Good luck and to all!

[mamatoady]

after about 4 years of getting nowhere in therapy dealing with PTSD, I found a therapist who I was with for a year and then he newly trained in it. I did bi-weekly sessions 90 minutes each while 8 months pregnant for 2 months (talk about emotional rollercoaster!) and it worked for me. I highly suggest it. My dh used it with my therapist while we were doing some marriage counselling and it didn't do much for him.

sarah

[erindaugherty]

Emdr

I tried to figure our how to link to another post but couldn't....Anyways, I used EMDR to recover from an extremely traumatic birth experience. It worked very well and I don't feel there are any negative side effects of trying it. I had PTSD for months and was desperate to feel better.

Erin
http://mybirthstory.blogspot.com

[Shantimama]

My therapist is great about not rushing me into the intensity when I have so much else going on. She has had me doing some inner child work for the abuse issues and that is going well. She wants to wait on the EMDR while I do some of this other stuff. She said it is a good thing to release the intensity connected with the memories but also important to learn how to live well afterwards - just lessening the intensity may not be enough for someone who was severely abused as a child.

[jmreinke]

Originally Posted by Shantimama

My therapist is great about not rushing me into the intensity when I have so much else going on. She has had me doing some inner child work for the abuse issues and that is going well. She wants to wait on the EMDR while I do some of this other stuff. She said it is a good thing to release the intensity connected with the memories but also important to learn how to live well afterwards - just lessening the intensity may not be enough for someone who was severely abused as a child.

It sounds like you have a good therapist. I posted this in the other thread about EMDR... The research seems to show that EMDR is a wonderful treatment for those with a single traumatic event they experiences - such as a car accident, earthquake, victim of one crime, the pp birth experience. The research is a little more sketchy on people who experienced chronic trauma such as abuse. EMDR is still something that is shown to be helpful on chronic PTSD, but not as clearly when compared to a single traumatic event.

My therapist has also suggested EMDR to deal with abuse memories. I am hesitant at this point because I'm not sure I am ready to deal with the intensity of that. He is good, like your therapist, at pushing me, but also respecting where I'm at. I'm still open minded about EMDR, but I am going to work on some other things first. I'm also going to try guided imagery as found in this book: Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How they Heal to help process and deal with the trauma. I found this book at the library and was very excited/hopeful about what I read.

[annakiss]

Moved to new forum Mental Health...