Published on 12, July, 2020
I have been bullied throughout my life and I have nightmares about being bullied in school as well as in workplaces.
I have had countless CBT therapists for depression, social phobia etc. I STILL have flashbacks, I shout out when I’m sleeping because I’ve been having nightmares about the scenarios that have been and gone and I’m being bullied in work again.
I want to try EMDR. Please has anybody on here had this and has it worked for you? How much are sessions roughly? Thanks
There is a webinar shortly on
Weds 18th November -1400-1530 hrs -
Free Webinar- Using EMDR with Clients on the Autism Spectrum
https://emdrassociation.org.uk/event/18th-november-1400-1530-hrs-free-webinar-using-emdr-with-clients-on-the-autism-spectrum/
That's a week on Wednesday!
Have a look at this guys videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkuqlRkMk_s
The idea of bilateral auditory as well as visual stimuli while regressing your thoughts, seems a good idea
https://www.virtualemdr.com/
https://emdrhealing.com/how-to-self-administer-emdr-therapy/#:~:text=%20Here%20is%20a%20summary%20of%20the%20general,beliefs%20and%20affects%20associated%20with%20memories.%20More%20
Trying looking and listening
she's the one who created EMDR I'll investigate a bit more..
The way I did things was to read:'Getting Past Your Past: Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy' by Francine Shapiro
I read the first handful of chapters and then decided to give it a go.
Just for responsibility (for anyone who may skip through to this message), the book does state to get clearance from a therapist first before applying the techniques.
where do i start is there online stuff i can use ?
i have done self hypnosis and self meditate so i should be able to have a go at this as well
I have had light (as in not overly heavy) EMDR therapy from one of my therapists.
Prior to that, I also self-practised it and went as deep as I could with it. The book I learned the techniques from said "do not practice without prior agreement from a therapist". I went and did it anyway but I understand why the cautious message about not self-trying is there. I should state that I have known for many years that I am comfortable going back into my most painful memories.
I found the EMDR techniques to be very useful. I found the work I did on myself to be possibly the most important therapy work I've had so far.
As alluded to earlier, I am someone who prefers to look my past trauma head on and possibly this is part of why EMDR was very helpful and indeed immediately helpful for me.
A good EMDR therapist, I gather, should ensure that the level of probing is appropriate and to provide sufficient care before and afterwards.
You could self administer it www.cambridge.org/.../3CA70DFFF3BC6778DC01B21244AFD26F
thats not how it should be delivered !
CBT did not work for me because the therapist just sat there lecturing me.
You also asked how much - i paid £100 per session, so quite expensive (that was with a clinical psychologist though who i had already seen for a few sessions, might be less with someone who is just qualified for cbt/emdr.
Similar experience to Herbal Tea. CBT useful for managing day to day stuff but not for trauma. EMDR worked very well for me. Process itself was pretty traumatic, as herbal tea says, but worth it because it worked. I had i think 4 sessions in total. You definately needto look after yourself afterwards and also find a therapist you really trust.
Hi there, I received EMDR treatment in 2019 for some trauma I didn’t processed effectively. Prior to this, I received CBT.
To compare the two - CBT was ineffective, talking didn’t help me to reduce the fight or flight response associated with flashbacks. Talking helped me to ‘get it out’ but my mental health did not improve from this alone. I found the EMDR process invasive, in order for it work effectively you have to go back to the time of the trauma and ‘face it’ (so to speak). Which can be tough in itself. Some traumas were erased after a few sessions, however other traumas were more persistent and required many attempts before my flashbacks became more manageable and my overall mental health improved. Being honest, neither treatment removed my flashbacks completely, but the EMDR did allow my brain to understand that the flashbacks were memories instead of trauma happening in the present.
my advice with EMDR is firstly to make sure you take care of yourself after the sessions. I felt quite low for a day or two because the treatment was invasive. I put that down to the amount of ‘processing’ my brain was needing to do. I learned a lot by ‘going back’ to the traumas and I think overall the treatment was better for me than CBT.
Good luck