[out2009]

Could someone give me an example of how an EMDR session goes? My T and I tries it two times, once I had the hardest time trying to visualize my situation. So she backed off because she said it was too much for my mind to handle. We are trying it again tomorrow and I was wondering if someone could explain how a session goes.

Thanks

[millionlittlepieces]

I'm wondering about this as well.

[phoenix7]

Hi out2009 and welcome,

I have had ac ouple of EMDR sessions - what happened for me was my T asked me to think abuot a situation - let her know what I was feeling and where in my body I was feeling it - then she asked me to watch her finger as it moved back and forwards - there was also some tappin on my shoulders and clicking next to my ears until I didnt feel whatever the feeling was anymore - we also visualised what I call my well of sadness - we filled it in and planted an apple tree over it - and visualised a sunny day there -

dont know if this helps..... good luck with your session

[splitimage]

I've been doing EMDR with my T for years.

First question - have you established a treatment plan or protocal for targets. Before starting EMDR, my T and I talked about my life, trauma's and significant relationships - it was kind of a linnear road map of my psyche.

Once we had that we'd agree on a target memory, we didn't necessarily work linnearly - more based on what I could handle, what was most urgent in terms of my trauma symptoms.

I'm not very good at visualization either, so once we'd start the emdr, my T would ask me to try and visualize or remember the target and then ask me what I was feeling. I somatize everything, so I've had some pretty weird physical reactions to EMDR - one of my more common ones is feeling like I have a ball of knives rotating in my shoulder. We tend to focus on my feelings for most of the seesion, with her occassionally asking me what I'm seeing - I can usually start to develop an image after I've been doing EMDR for a bit.

It usually takes me multiple sessions for me to process a target, so we spend the last 5 -10 minutes where I visualize / feel putting all my emotions in a tank, so that I won't be overwhelmed between sessions.

When we reach the end of a target, we'll usually try and replace it with a more positive image / message (I have some pretty funny ones) and work on that for a while.

Now we mostly use EMDR to help me talk to my ego states and get them all talking to each other with a goal of integrating them more than they currently are.

EMDR can be pretty powerful therapy and provoke strong physical and emotional reactions (I threw up after my first session) so I think it's really important to take it slow and discuss with your T exactly what you're going to be working on, before diving right into it.

Good luck with it. EMDR can be a really helpful tool.

--splitimage

[out2009]

Thank you for giving me an example, I'm just affraid I will get too overwhelmed with the feelings that might come up at the time. What do you do when that happens?

[splitimage]

Yeah - EMDR can be really intense and the feelings can be overwhelming. So it's important for you and your T to discuss a strategy for containment. We usually end my EMDR processing about 5 - 10 minutes before my session is over. My T asks me what I'm feeling and how much I think I can handle feeling until the next session without being overwhelmed. So if I'm feeling sad, I'll say I can handle 5 or 10% of the emotion. Then still doing EMDR, I visualize putting the emotion into a tank. I can't expalin how it works, just that it does for me, I personally visualize my emotions like a stream of water (different colours for different emotions) and I pore them into this giant tank that has a really stron cap and lock on it. And I don't let them come out until next session. I guess technically it's a variation on dissociation, but hey I might as well play to my strengths.

Sometimes too after a session if it's been really intense I'll go for a walk around the block or sit in my car doing deep breathing exercises to ground me, and remind me that I'm in the present and that nothing is hurting me now.

--splitimage

[sunrise]

I've only done EMDR a handful of times and not for a couple of years. My T followed a certain protocol each time, and we needed to have a longer session to fit it all in.

Sometimes we would go over the target a couple of times before doing the EMDR. So I would be remembering before doing EMDR and doing some of the feeling then. When I started to repeat myself (T would ask is there anything more?), then we would start the EMDR. I would put the pulsing gizmos in my shoes and adjust the intensity and frequency. We would always do positive and negative cognitions before getting started. This involved saying something positive or negative about myself or a situation and then rating on a scale how closely my beliefs aligned with either the positive or negative cognitions. Then we would do the EMDR and work through the memory again. The EMDR helps the processing and helps the memory become unstuck. At the end, we would return to the positive and negative cognitions and rate them again and see if the scores had changed. If was really hard for me to do the positive cognition at the end. I needed a couple of days in order to do it accurately. By the difference in the cognitions (before and after), T could tell if we needed to return to this target in future EMDR sessions or if we could move on to the next target. I remember my positive cognition was often "I am strong."

Sometimes our targets were with younger ego states rather than with myself. We did go back to my infancy once and that was pretty powerful.

One time my T played music for me during EMDR.

There were other times, early on, when we did not go over the target before doing the EMDR. These were early on, before I had experienced the process. Maybe a way of easing me into it...

Before we began EMDR, we talked about it A LOT. We discussed research on it, what it could be used for, the process, T's experience and training with the technique, etc. T showed me some books on it, and I read one book on it I really liked that I got at the library, and it helped make me want to give EMDR a try.

After an EMDR session, I would often be exhausted. But other times I would be extremely energized.

Good luck, I hope it helps. And you can take it very slowly if it is too intense.