Therapist loves EMDR and I don't

Confession time. I HATE EMDR and my therapist loves the technique. I'm not sure if I hate it precisely because she loves it so much or there is really something in the technique that doesn't work with my history of trauma. Whichever it is, I can't tolerate the technique. I shut down and it becomes a wasted exercise. I really like my therapist. I hate her attachment to EMDR.

Tell her you don't want her to do it. It is your therapy, not hers. My T likes mindfulness and yoga. I have asked him never to share another mindfulness technique with me for the rest of my life. He was fine with this and never has since.

Mine had never heard of it.

You absolutely don't have to do it. Just tell him you want to try a different approach. Doing a technique that isn't helpful is a waste of time and money.

I tried it once , Nope nope and nope. It just wasn’t going to help me and It pissed me off to be honest. We found other ways to address it

You control your Therapy and if something isn’t working there are other things to try.

I hope you find relief

Hey @sheltiemom2007 does your insurance cover EMDR?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheltiemom2007 Confession time. I HATE EMDR and my therapist loves the technique. I'm not sure if I hate it precisely because she loves it so much or there is really something in the technique that doesn't work with my history of trauma. Whichever it is, I can't tolerate the technique. I shut down and it becomes a wasted exercise. I really like my therapist. I hate her attachment to EMDR.

I shut down all the time in EMDR and I swear we get maybe 10 minutes of it. It is not done every session but we still do it. I did it with my therapist before him and it helped me with him but not great with this therapist. Sometimes I feel EMDR is like voodoo. You have to believe in it for it to work.

EMDR T and I haven't used EMDR in a little over a year. I disassociated too often so we took a step back and are working on my stress tolerance. Emdr is very intense. I really dislike it BUT at one appointment we we were successful in working through one small area of my past. She attends supervision for EMDR and often talked about my case. One of the things they told her was we needed to take things in very small slivers. So we scaled back and try not to do too much at once.

I suspect we will soon try Emdr again. Once I am a little more over the death of T and I can better handle the emotions and thoughts brought out by Emdr

Just say "no." Seriously. You don't have to do this if you do not want to. There was one specific focus my therapist tried to introduce that I was adamantly against. I made it clear that it was not to be brought up ever again. He honored that request without further discussion.

That was the approach I also forbade. Glad to know I'm not the only one.

When it comes down to it, therapy is a service for you so you have the right to say what you want to do there. I know it's easier said than done as some therapists take the approach that they know better than the client and are 'treating' the client - however you are still paying for the therapy hour and so you do have the right to make clear you don't wish to use a specific technique. I wish I'd made clear I absolutely hated the gestalt chair thing and I still feel angry when I think about how I was almost forced into it. Never again.

Yes. Insurance covers EMDR just as it would a session.

I am unconvinced of the efficacy of EMDR beyond the effects of exposure of thinking about your trauma. However, if it's freaking you out it isn't working as desired. I don't think I'd seek it out. I also hate meditation with a passion. It makes me anxious or angry, the exact opposite effect that it is supposed to have. I googled it. I'm not the only one. The first time a therapist suggested it, I was adamantly opposed, along with mindfulness, which I thought was the same thing (it isn't). But I can't deny that some of my problems have to do with disconnecting from myself (such as mindless eating, hating myself, etc.) so I'm sort of giving it a second thought.

You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but there could be a middle ground. I'd talk to your therapist and tell her exactly the issues you have with it, and maybe say "not now," rather than "never."

You're definitely not the only one.

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