I find it helps to focus on what I was feeling not so much on what was happening during the traumatic event.

Example: My dad left the family when I was 5. I don't remember anything at all about it except something about him being on a business trip to which I eventually figured out he wasn't going to ever return. I had this 'sinking' feeling in my gut from then on, but it wasn't until I focused on that event in terms of how I felt - focused on that 'sinking' feeling - during an EMDR session that I realized that 'sinking' feeling was the realization that my safe parent had left me with the scary one. At age 5, I couldn't articulate it, but as an adult, with the help of EMDR, I could. What I found fascinating about it was how the words that came to mind as "my safe parent had left me with the scary one' like a child would speak instead of something like "I was scared and upset because my dad made me feel safe and without him in the house anymore, I was very scared of my mom" or something to that effect - more adult.

Sometimes I don't get images at all, like in the above scenario, just strong emotions. Sometimes I can assign an image to to say, a given relationship. For instance, during one session, my T asked me to tell her what my relationship with my mother looks like now, and the image of an old, diseased oak tree immediately popped into my head. Another image I discovered during EMDR was a small, black, rotten walnut which represents my constant anxiety and sits in my gut, always there.....always rotting. I'm still waiting for it to finish rotting away, but I truly believe one day it will.

Keep trying, please! I think things will start improving soon if you keep it up.

Good luck!

WW