the big deal is that EMDR doesnt work if a person continues to self injury.... its kind of like if someone goes to AA then as they come out the door they pop open a can of beer. it self sabotages the program, which makes it a waste of time on the therapist and the client.

EMDR is a series of classes that a person does in therapy. The very first "class" the therapist and client talks about all the different things going on in a persons life, past and present and makes sure the client is stable and open to make the changes needed. if someone isnt willing to throw out the negative ways and use the EMDR way when they get triggered then its all a waste of time, energy and frustrating on both sides.

EMDR looks at some very upsetting and traumatic things which can activate doing self injury more instead of less if trying to do it while doing EMDR.

think of it like this think of your worst memory that causes you to self injure, now think about how the EMDR is going to make you look every closely at that memory, remember every single gross detail of that memory, make you feel panicky, scared....to the worst extreme while going through the recounting/ remembering phase of EMDR.... and you are self injuring, are you going to want to self injure more and deeper? or are you going to say no I am going to use the breathing, self talk, and other EMDR tools.

with me the first time I was going to try emdr my answer was if I was self injuring and going through EMDR I would want to self injure more and deeper and wouldnt care if I was putting my life in danger. on my therapists side he could not risk the losing of his credentials by doing a therapy technique that would make an unstable person go deeper into their traumatic past, rather than putting off emdr until later.

by the way with EMDR a therapist does know when a person is self injuring instead of doing the program way of getting rid of negative behaviors and using the EMDR tools full time. they keep records of each session and whether progress is being made with each session and if certain things are not happening then they have to stop doing EMDR.

they dont look at the cuts but the body language and behaviors during the process gives it away.

my suggestion is if you are not ready to give up the cutting then now is not the time to do EMDR. it will be a waste of your time and the therapists and your insurance which can impact your other covered mental health treatments.