To sing the praises of EMDR therapy?!

[malificent7]

Just been reading the broken thread and i was broken as a young adult due to a horrific relationship and abusive childhood.
I read about emdr therapy on here and although sceptical gave it a go.
I can safely say that it has changed my life! I feel lighter, no longer replay the same events, no longer feel anger and have moved foward and found love. It gave me my life back.
Moreover it works in a very unusual way...by stimulating the brain to mimic the rapid eye movements in sleep to unlock trauma. Sounds weird but it worked.
I highly recommend it!

yes! my DH was involved in a car crash (not his fault) and never really processed what happened. 2 years later had a breakdown and diagnosed with ptsd and imo it was emdr that got him well enough to return to work.

no-ones ever heard of it and it sounds quite whacky.

My friend is a GP and he recommends it for past trauma.

Didn’t work for my PTSD at all. In fact, for a short time it exacerbated it.

It worked just as well for my husband who.was suffering PTSD from a violent abusive childhood. He only had 4 sessions and the intrusive thoughts and flashbacks stopped. We did have to go private as it was 11 months wait on the NHS and he needed it sooner - it had been triggered by an event. But it was money well spent. Amazing.

I know several veterans with PTSD. EMDR was the only thing that worked for them.

I'm on a waiting list for EMDR for PTSD/CPTSD. 15 month wait!

EMDR unfortunately didn't work for me. But I think that's because my PTSD is complex and multifaceted.

Coupled with my lack of self worth and not being able to accept I was worthy of being helped.

I had psychotherapy in the form of CAT and that was life changing (literally)

I have seen many PTSD clients have amazing improvement following EMDR therapy.

Other MH issues have often improved once PTSD is manageable too, and, unlike other therapies, it seems to help people with ASCs too.

I think they should throw resources at training more practitioners.

My friend is a practitioner of EMDR. She mostly works with people in the emergency services who have been through traumatic events through work. She has a very high success rate with it. Like everything it won't work for everyone but it is definitely not wacky.

It's not remotely wacky. I'm considering doing the training. I refer clients to a service in West London for ptsd and it's incredibly successful with intrusive images and flashbacks.

It's also really quick, one or two sessions. I have clients who go and do it and are then much more emotionally available to do therapeutic work. So maybe it works best if you have a therapist too?

^^this part I don't 'know', just my experience so far.

I found EMDR excellent, I can say after years of various therapy it the one thing that has helped. I was very sceptical and had pretty much given up on dealing with things and had tuned to suppression to cope.

I only needed 8 sessions but felt a definitive change after the 3rd session.

It did not solve my trauma but allowed that immediate stress reaction to be less intense and be dulled, taking the panic of the flashbacks away and lowering my stress reactions.

I have combined it with psychotherapy, and yoga and I can honestly say it has changed my life.

I honestly credit EMDR (in combo with Venlafaxine) as having saved my life. It did feel a tiny bit whacky while I was having it, but it was amazing.

Following an abusive relationship, I had counselling for a couple of years that didn't really get anywhere. About 10 sessions of emdr (same therapist), and I was a new woman! Amazing. I was a huge sceptic, but even though it sounds wacky it really changed my life.

Does it work for CPTSD for events that happened over years or is it more for people who had one major traumatic event?

I used to work in child protection and after having my own baby began suffering with a reoccurring nightmare. I was referred to a local service for EMDR and had the problem resolved in about 6 sessions. I waited 2 or 3 months for my appointment. Although I fell below the threshold for treatment I was offered the sessions due to the nature of my work. A really excellent service from my point of view.

It has felt like a miracle cure to me. I can't recommend it highly enough.

It was a complete disaster for my husband and made him very unwell. They didn’t give him the tools to deal with the trauma going back every week was a new kind of hell.

I am so glad it worked for you. Did it work straight away or was there a phase where it was worse and got better?

The only reason I ask is because I had to go no contact with a friend after EMDR totally changed her personality beyond recognition. After her first 3 sessions she reported she always felt panicky after sessions and had horrific nightmares. After about 3 months of EMDR she was constantly aggressive and started to regularly wish people dead whenever we met up and get quite excited about the thought of certain people we both knew being dead. I felt really uneasy around her and was dealing with my own depression and codependency. I did gently try and ask if she thought the EMDR was making things worse and she’s always fly into a rage, saying she’d invested thousands by now and she was going to keep having it until she was better. She also used to criticise me for “only” having counselling and make fun of the process. She became ruthlessly competitive and would fly into fits of rage like a toddler. She also said she felt anxious most of the time.

Previous to this she was always sweet and calm and very kind. Her personality started changing from her first EMDR session and gradually became more and more strange and worrying.

My counsellor actually recommended I go Nc as she was concerned for my safety and felt the friendship was affecting my own recovery.

I’ve always felt guilty because I had helped this friend research and find a “good”, experienced EMDR therapist and I feel like I put her in the hands of the person that did more damage to her.

She’s literally disappeared off the face of the earth since, stopped all her hobbies and contact with our mutual friends. Reading your post has made me hope that the EMDR did actually help in the end and that maybe she found some happiness in the end.

I've had a lot of therapy due to childhood traumas and father suicide, and EMDR has been the only thing to give me peace.

It finds the root cause of the issue and I think it's brilliant. Paid for mine privately as I desperately needed the help. It's very expensive (think £60 a session, once a week for 4 months) BUT what it's given me back in terms of managing things in my life and dealing with my anxiety is priceless I feel

Does it work for CPTSD for events that happened over years or is it more for people who had one major traumatic event?

I was told so by a senior psychologist recently.

Joined just to post on this :)

I've just finished a 12 session course of EMDR in the Birmingham area (with a separate assessment session first). My therapist immediately identified me with Complex PTSD, generated throughout my childhood and re-triggered by a 'perfect storm' of my house being renovated and my work moving offices (a lot of my issues surrounded frequent moving, as well as an abusive partner of my mothers, bullying, etc etc)

We spent I think 3 full sessions ensuring that I had the tools to cope with what was to come. I came away from the first session session of reprocessing literally terrified of loud noises and raised voices due to the childhood issues. This abated over the following days with help from the tools I was given to be able to cope. It returned in a lesser form the next two sessions until it was gone.

I was suffering panic, periods of near-catanonic 'shutting down' and a total inability to think forwards. I can now cope. As such, I would advocate it in the strongest of terms!

My employer paid for my sessions as part of their wellness program, and in acknowledgement of their part in the re-triggering.

@MyGastIsFlabbered, I hope the above shows that yes, it can work with CPTSD. I used to spend the last bits of the session towards the end discussing the therapy protocol - my therapist told me that she had previously processed a single-incident sexual abuse (not sure if I'm allowed to type the name of the crime) in only 2 sessions - it all depends on how well the individual responds. Complex cases by their nature will take longer to work through

I was so interested in how it works that I am re-designing the machine she uses based on my experiences and her wish-list!

When I first read about the protocol, I thought it sounded very strange indeed, bordering hypnosis and during the sessions I couldn't help feeling very strange - in particular its so wierd that it works! Like some other posters, I had a feeling that I didn't deserve to be helped, and as such it was difficult for me personally to admit that it was helping

I was delighted by how well its worked for me, and I will happily talk about the subject until the cows come home - if anyone wants more info or to know more about my experience please feel free to PM me

It's been life-changing for me. I have PTSD following an assault 4 years ago and it's helped so much. YANBU x

OP, great thread, thank you. I have started suffering from anxiety after work place bullying years ago though there may have been 'issues' and 'fragilities" beforehand that I wasn't able to pin point clearly, so possibly complex PTSD?

I'd give EMDR a go.

Can anyone recommend a practitioner in London please?

no-ones ever heard of it and it sounds quite whacky.

You mean YOU haven't heard of it.
Millions have. It works, & is recognised by NICE.