Quote:
Originally Posted by Werewoman
I've had EMDR off and on for years. In the beginning, it started off slow for me, too. After a while I started noticing little things, like words or smells associated with the trauma after the EMDR session didn't bother me anymore, whereas before and under the right circumstances, I could be triggered into outright rage by those same words and smells.
Also, I know your therapist is well experienced, but who is setting the tempo and what form are you using? Some therapists use moving lights, moving two fingers, alternating sounds through headphones, and/or small vibrating devices held in the palms of your hands. For instance, I've done it with alternating sounds, but never lights or moving fingers. I prefer a very fast tempo (both therapists I have done this with have commented that I choose a faster tempo than their other patients - I don't know why I need the faster tempo). Lately, I've found using the headphones and the hand devices simultaneously and keeping my eyes closed helps the most. What's weird is that my eyes move back and forth anyway even though they are closed.
Please don't give up. EMDR has been a Godsend for me and many other people I know. Of course, it doesn't work for anyone - no treatment does, but things that used to send me into a tailspin I can now think about without, well, going into a tailspin. It creates more of an emotional sore spot where a gaping wound used to be.
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Thank you for your kind response. The kind of treatment she uses with EMDR was the one where she puts those vibrating things in the palm of your hands. She never tried the flashing lights and I never saw any such device in her office but I know what it looks like as I saw a video online demonstrating how it works. But she did however mention it to me and said that the light is a form of EMDR treatment as I had brought it up to her during one of our sessions.
It's just for me it is hard to recreate images when I can't really remember what happened to me as a kid. Like I'll sit on the phone for an hour and talk to my mother who tells me everything that happened to me as a kid and it goes in one ear and out the other because I do not recall any memories from the abuse that she tells me I had happened to me. If she said someone did something to me like I still don't remember which makes it hard. The therapist says sometimes random images relating to the trauma come up that I might not have been remembering or thinking about before but so far no new images have come up. I sometimes get frustrated but I know I won't give up hope I keep trying again
