Has anyone done EMDR? What was your experience?

[strugglelife]

Just looking to hear people’s experience? If you recommend it? And if you know of any affordable providers out there.

i have experience with CBT and psychodynamic psychotherapy but feel like I need something different and can benefit from this

I had it on the NHS. I called asking for trauma focused CBT but the therapist chatted through my situation in the first appointment and said that CBT would not be her recommendation for me as I was very cognitive aware. Too aware!- I saw everyone else’s point of view (or possible point of view, I suppose) - I talked about my emotions but didn’t show any external sign of actually experiencing them even though I was teary. She totally got my situation and I felt totally understood and really respected her approach. She recommended the body keeps the score book.

I think it could be a really valuable treatment. It didn’t work for me unfortunately. I’d got to point of being beyond talking therapy. I fell off the cliff a couple of years latter and diagnosed in hospital with bipolar . Medication works now for me 99% of the time.

I'm in England, it might be different in others parts of the UK, but I would have thought you would be eligible for it on NHS. I would certainly ask.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m glad you’ve found that medication has helped and you’ve found something that works for you now.

I’m getting to a point where I’m questioning whether talk therapy is working for me, so this kinda feels like a last resort seeking something deeper, and EMDR sounds like it might be what I need. Though I’ll have to see. I wasn’t aware you can access it on the NHS, so that’s really helpful.

I’ve heard a lot about the body keep scores. I think I’ll have a read of it. I do have a tendency to over intellectualise and that hasn’t helped me much in the past but sounds like it’s a worth a read.

You sound a lot like me — I live in my head, am completely disconnected from my body, and use my high intelligence to verbalise and hold things at a distance. Combination of CSA and neglectful childhood. I’ve had a lot of therapy, but realised I was starting where a lot of people finish. I have a high level of insight into my psychological set-up, the childhood scripts thst negatively impacted me etc. But I’ve been seeing a somatic therapist for a year and have found it transformative. She uses EMDR, but it’s only part of what a typical session might involve. It’s one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, but it’s given me a whole new understanding of myself. It sounds as if it might be an approach you would benefit from.

That sounds amazing, @GluttonousHag . I'll send you a DM in case you're willing to share her details.

In my own experience: It's not the quick fix that some practitioners promote it as being.
The somatic therapy that @GluttonousHag describes above sounds much more comprehensive, I can see EMDR being effective when used alongside other methods.
I learned a bit from van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score. I learned about the existence of trauma informed yoga which has helped me alot. But it's a long a steady process, no promises of six weeks to full recovery.

Also I know that there have been accusations made against van der Kolk by some women who work with him. I don't know the details but I know for some people that would be triggering to find out after they'd read the book and found parts of it helpful.

I’d agree. EMDR alone I don’t think would do much for me. With the way my therapist works, it might take up ten or fifteen minutes of fifty, or not be used at all in some sessions.

I’m no expert, obviously, and am fairly new to somatic therapy, but I’ve found if a revelation, and very challenging, because I live in such a ‘head only’ way — for instance, despite being a self-aware person, I’d never noticed my tendency to hold my breath for long periods when upset, and that I’m generally a poor breather, and that my disordered eating is about blocking feeling. In essence, I’ve lived out of my body for 40 plus years as a survival mechanism. It’s a tough thing to change.

This sounds like exactly what I need. I’ve been in therapy primarily psychodynamic therapy for years to get to the root of my issues and some CBT. But I’m finding that knowing and understanding myself self and the techniques I can use can only take me so far. Being self aware doesn’t translate to real life change. I have a really good connection with my therapist but I feel we may be coming to a natural end.

I’ll need to do a bit of research on somatic providers nearby. All very expensive and I know it’s no quick fix, and will likely to be a mid-long term piece of work.

I’ve been having EMDR therapy on NHS since January for PTSD every 1-2 weeks & it’s been very helpful & very odd! One of the most bizarre things I’ve done in terms of how it works, the actual sessions & what it reveals. Not sure if widely available on NHS but from my experience, id be happy to pay if needed more in future.

Hi everyone. First post on Mumsnet, and following this thread as EDMR has been recommended to me as a survivor of child sex abuse with cPTSD. I'm right at the start of my healing journey and have only just begun therapy. Like GluttonousHag, I've also struggled with living in my head and disassociating from my body. There's so much to unravel. Anyway, glad to be here.

I had EMDR privately abroad. It was brilliant. Really shifted preverbal trauma, and then helped me process lots of different traumatic events more recently. Once I'd got the hang of it and we'd worked through much of the most traumatic stuff in the sessions, I bought the book, Francine Shapiro's Getting Past your Past, and did lots of the exercises at home too. Made it possible to create much happier alternative scenarios. Was lifechanging for me.
Son had it as a child in UK. Did help him somewhat, but less effective than mine was for me. Good luck.

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EMDR..absolutely brilliant.

I'd had a trauma through work that had essentially left me 'stuck' for 2 years and in a constant fight flight or freeze response.

5 sessions...and it really sorted me out
Well, a year later I emailed the practitioner and said he'd saved my life.

I've had CBT for other things but omg the going round and round is so laborious. I found EMDR I needed to be really focused and deal with the issue at hand, it wasn't, for me, about unpicking everything that had happened since I was born.

I pretty familiar with many types of therapy due to my work
For me, I was desperate but incredibly motivated plus I didn't need a Freudian couch for 2 years. I needed to get my life back.

Don't get me wrong, I still had shit to deal with after 5 sessions but it was like the trauma wasn't so present and I knew I had the skills to work the rest of it out.

Hello. I’ve had EMDR for PTSD (so many acronyms!) and it worked really well for me- 3 sessions and I don’t think I’ve had a trauma/dissociation/panic/shutdown reaction since, 5 years later.

I personally didn't find it useful but it may have been the practitioner I saw. I benefited more from advanced CBT and talking to my past self during counselling sessions. This solved decades of self esteem and trauma issues (after years of trying different counselling methods)

I've done "tapping therapy" with a therapist - we had worked together for a while and then she added it in. It was transformative really quickly. These body based treatments can be really effective.

Our experience sounds quite similar

I had EMDR organised by work for work related PTSD. Probably saved my career. And I was really sceptical.

My daughter did it
Undiagnosed Autism trauma and phobias

She did great on it. She is doing it again soon to unpick some recent events. She wants to do it again it was so helpful for her.

I've had tapping EMDR and it sorted out my ptsd. It's much better than cbt if you live in your own head because you haven't got to talk every instance over and over.

I have also had EMDR for PTSD after a major road accident. To be honest I was very sceptical. In fact I was more than sceptical, I was resentful. I had been recommended to have it after a psychological assessment that was part of my insurance claim. In that situation whilst they are at pains to tell you that yes, of course you have a choice and don't have to have any treatment you don't want it's usually quickly followed by "though of course if you don't you'll probably be deemed to be uncooperative with treatment which may significantly affect your claim". So I was going along as a tick box exercise, thinking it sounded like a load of New Age gobbledygook and irritated that I was basically being pushed into it. I am also not really cut out for a treatment of this nature. When everyone else was lying peacefully deep breathing on their yoga mats at antenatal classes I was the one with looking round the room with one eye opening thinking "I like her t shirt. Ooh, looks like a bit of damp on that wall. Did I turn the iron off ? I'd better get milk on the way home. Oh it must be 5 minutes now, how long til this bollocks is over..." So I had no belief either that the therapy would work or that I'd even be able to put up with it.
But it did. Within about half a dozen sessions I'd gone from being someone who was having close to full blown panic attacks as a passenger in the car to driving myself, and in another four I was able to drive past the site of the incident and acknowledge what had happened there, but look at it objectively, almost like it was something that happened to someone else, rather than reliving it in lurid detail whenever I passed the end of the road. And to be honest it might have been quicker if I'd been better at concentrating as I did find my mind wandering quite easily. But the therapist was great and just said OK, let's just chat a bit and we can have another try later if you want. She also ditched the meditation type thing she did at the end after I told her I was thinking about what I'd forgotten to put on my Tesco order within seconds of closing my eyes. I think it was a combination of the EMDR and just talking to her actually, but yeah, it worked. I don't know how as I think the theory does sound ridiculous. And I am pretty sure it wasn't a place7 ybo effect as I didn’t expect or even really want it to work as it all semed so silly. But it it did. I'd recommend trying a few sessions in you can. I don't know what it cost sorry as the insurers paid directly.

&8**

Hope it’s okay to jump on this thread, I wanted to share my not very good experience of EMDR.
So over the space of a few months the therapist had me pick an animal to imagine (Let’s say a bird) You then close your eyes and picture a traumatic memory whilst tapping your chest, you then picture the animal in that memory and listen to the advice it was given (This isn’t your fault, you don’t need to be ashamed ect) But the whole time I was doing it I was thinking, this isn’t the birds advice, these are my own thoughts and I’m as aware now as I was at age Seven that it wasn’t my fault or shame… I just had no control because I was Seven!
Reading the responses to this post has me thinking, I probably live outside of my own body and don’t feel much emotion, I definitely relate to the breathing issues someone brought up.

I didn't do the tapping version of EMDR and in fact, pure EMDR is about resetting via eye movement..hence 'eye movement desenstisation reprogramming'.
It is meant to move the locked trauma to a place in the brain where you can process it so God knows what therapeutic stance the therapist with the bird was using.

I'm an EMDR therapist and also had EMDR for myself. It can be really effective, not all of the time obviously and can definitely feel a bit odd. I think it's just very person dependent, I also do TF-CBT which suits some people better and for myself I've always needed to take medication alongside therapy.

I am blind one side and my eye muscles don’t work properly, that’s why she did tapping.
Does it have to be eye movement, maybe that’s why it didn’t work.

Me.. ive had therapy for over 30 years on and off.. been in psychiatric hospitals.. last year something/ someone came back to haunt me .. it was suggested EMDR.. It was horrific for me.. gave me psychosis and hallucinations...
I stopped.. l was then offered CAT Therapy ( no not stroking cats lol). I'll put a link.. after 30 years.. ( and having every therapy going including CBT and ECT).. Cat therapy was the best.. l had 24 weeks.. it helped l had a brilliant therapist.. because you have to build up a trusting relationship.
Please note there is a big difference between counselling and Therapy.
Counselling is for the here and now.. ( think marriage counselling. ).Therapy is for past trauma.
https://www.tewv.nhs.uk/about-your-care/treatments-therapies/cognitive-analytic-therapy/