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EMDR for trauma

QueenieSenior Contributor04 Oct 2018, 10:49 am AEST

EMDR for trauma

Hey All,

Yesterday I went to therapy and instead of talk therapy, I decided I wanted to broach the subject of resolving some of my childhood, young adulthood trauma. My psychologist said it was like living with a splinter, it hurts and is very painful but all the medication and numbing down isn't going to solve anything as the splinter is still there and will continue to hurt me. The splinter needs to come out and it will hurt coming out but after it is done, hopefully I can move onwards with my life.

So here we are. EMDR (don't ask me what it stands for because I have absolutely no idea). I began yesterday on some small amounts of distressing stuff and yes, I feel a lot calmer talking about them. My childhood however is going to be a biggie. I am looking forward to feeling better about things though. I just have to keep this in mind when I am going through the painful stuff.

Anyone have experiences of EMDR that they'd like to share? Given I will always be schizoaffective, but I'd like to live a less triggering lifestyle if at all possible.

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In response to: EMDR for trauma

ethSenior Contributor11 Nov 2018, 5:38 pm AEDT

Re: EMDR for trauma

Hi @Queenie wondering if you're still doing EMDR and how it's going for you? I've done a few weekly sessions with it now and can say a few things about how it is for me. We're not actually using the eye movements but I hold little units in my hands that pulse alternately for 1/2 a minute or so while I focus on aspects of what happened to me when I went through DV. I think we are working up to doing it with eyes. So far I've had a couple of realisations that I hadn't seen previously that shift some of my thinking on the whole episode. Why I was still in the relationship when the worst explosion happened, how my childhood modeling by parents' behaviour contributed to me being in the relationship at all, but mostly it's been recovering more detailed memories of the worst assault and that whole episode of my life, but in a safe place. And my psychologist established a 'safe place' for me to return to at the end of each session as well as using a couple of visualisations any time it all comes up between sessions - locking everything up in a shipping container (my choice of image) and being under a purple waterfall washing it all away.

This is only one of multiple traumas that happened at other times in my life so it seems like it'll be quite a long road, but it feels right to be doing it. I've been seeing her for over a year before we started the EMDR (which I was originally referred to her for last year) and she knows me really well now and has a pretty comprehensive time line of events in my life. I''m 55 and traumatic events started in my childhood.

Thanks to everyone who's written on this thread @utopia @strong @Appleblossom @CheerBear (thanks for the tag) and @Jupiter (thanks for the links).
I've been meaning to drop in here for weeks but I guess I wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

In response to: Re: EMDR for trauma

utopiaSenior Contributor11 Nov 2018, 6:52 pm AEDT

Re: EMDR for trauma

So pleased to hear it's going well for you @eth

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