let me first start out by saying, i worked at a mental health office where a therapist did emdr and saw so many people get better with the help of emdr. i called it a miracle. it did so much to improve people's lives.

next, my T would not do EMDR with me becuase he said i dissociated to easily. i could not even develop a safe place it was too tramatic for me. T would try to get me to identify where i was feeling things in my body too and my mind would be all over the place so i can identify with your lack of not knowing what to say. i too have little memory of my childhood and although i ended up having a major emotional breakdown and worked thru the trauma, the memories themselves have never really come back to me.

so to answer your questions... do you believe that somehow gaining awareness of your body's subtle clues will help processing emotion-or in my case, understanding/feeling emotions other than anxiety......definately. because we do store our emotions in our body. its as basic as being able to recognize when you are clenching your fists because you are angry, being able to catch that, figure out what you are angry about, and process that anger. noticing that you have butterflies in your stomach because you are nervous, determining the source of that anxiety and processing that emotion, rubbing your forehead because you are frustrated, identifying the source of that frustration, and dealing with it. you might bite your nails, tap your foot when you are anxious. grind your teeth when frustrated. notice your elevetion in blood pressure or increased breathing when angry. desire to eat or sleep when sad. so your body has many cues to let you know you are experiencing an emotion, so if you pay attention to them, as you address the emotion, the physical cue will subside. you want to address the anger, which caused increased blood pressure and breathing, you could focus on breathing and reducing your blood pressure and your anger will subside.

Do you believe that you can get stuck in talk therapy and need to find other ways to access your subconscious? Definately.... talk therapy is only one way to access subconscious. but we got this stuff buried in there deep. we have it hidden and dont want it accessed. we are trying to protect ourselves. it needs to be gone after with jackhammers, drills, tnt, snuck up on, direct hits,...the works....at least that has been my approach....but multiple approaches until you find one that works...keep chipping away until you find one that works and sometimes its a combination of many approaches.

so when it comes to how your body feels, see if you can practice by paying attention to how your body feels nomally a little bit each night before you fall asleep. feel the weight and balance of it. how solid it feels. the density. compare the right to the left side. do they feel equal? see if you cant imagine the molecules that make you up moving about you. practice this on a regular basis. get to know you. then when she asks how you feel, you will be able to say " my stomach feels heavier" or "my right side feels lower" or "my throat seems tight".

anyway, i hope this helps...if you have any questions or want to talk, feel free to pm me.....