Emdr not clinically indicated for cptsd?

[Elphanigh]

I know I am coming to this thread late, so hopefully this is still helpful 

As someone who experienced emdr for the better part of a year in combination with a few other modalities to help balance it, I do really believe emdr can be effective for cptsd. I no longer qualify for the diagnosis but I did when I began emdr. Like everyone else though, the T must know what they are doing and understand the nature of complex trauma for it to work. Grounding and resourcing becomes even more important with this modality. My T and I work together for nearly a year before we did emdr. A ton of that was grounding resources and getting me to a stable enough point I could handle the processing between session. It did bring up repressed memories and feelings for me, which occasionally knocked me out but I was always able to talk to my T so we could go at a pace that was healthy for me specifically. For me, I really think emdr was a huge piece of why I have healed as much of my past as I have. I went through years of really horrific abuse, and feel like I processed a lot of my worst feeder memories in emdr. It is truly intense and difficult, so be ready for it and communicate your needs very clearly to a well trained t.

Hope that is still helpful 

[Kizzie]

Tks for posting about this Elph, I was hoping you would b/c I know your experience has been positive overall.  Your post really emphasizes how important it is to have a well trained T who prepares you well and takes things at your pace.

I personally would go back for EMDR as it did lift me out of being so reactive to Trump's NPD chaos & drama and I did not have an EF when I saw my NPDM a week or so ago.     I credit EMDR with that.  Once we move I want to try somatic experiencing first though so will see if there's any health insurance left. 

[Surviving]

I thought I'd add my feelings on EMDR too... I have therapy once a week, and EMDR with a different therapist once a week.  We just happened to discuss how many sessions I've had so far -  twenty six...

If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said EMDR doesn't do much... I grew up being abused by my parents, and could barely function...  But as I worked on my abuse in EMDR every week, I started to realize that I could think about some of my memories without crashing and burning... They're just memories - no more emotion around them...

If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I'd ever get over my CPTSD, I would have said, "no way"... One year later, and I'm totally open about having (C)PTSD with friends and family, and I actually think some day I'll be over this...  But at this point, I get told all the time that I seem like a different person - more self-assured, and more relaxed... I'm not over it yet, but I will get over it...

So it definitely works for some of us with CPTSD... 

[Boatsetsailrose]

What a positive post surviving...
Thank u for sharing.. I'm real pleased its had such a good outcome for u

[Bix]

I'll be the voice of negative experience.  EMDR was done in therapy with me, and all it did was make me very unbalanced, hypervigilent, headaches, prone to dissociation, nightmares, agoraphobic. My therapist and I thought we were going slow, but it was never cathartic for me. I had dread going to  therapy. She was a specialist trauma therapist, and so I believed that this was the process and I had to trust her and just "go through" it to beat it.  But I can see now she was not reading my signs and just moving ahead whe it was very harmful. I have since learned EMDR is potentially very upsetting and harmful if not done after perhaps years of grounding. Even a so called specialist can be blind to your signals. It really makes me angry at this point.

[sanmagic7]

bix, as an emdr therapist, i'm really sorry for your experience.  that should never have happened.  unfortunately, even the so-called 'specialists' aren't always informed about complex trauma.  i don't blame you for being so angry - i've had incompetent t's in my life, too, and they did set me back as i had to recover from the trauma at their hands that was piled on the past traumas i was already dealing with.

sending a gentle hug if you want.  i hope that never happens to you again - you deserve so much better therapy than what you've had.

[Kizzie]

Bix there is an EMDR association if you want to let them know what happened so they can speak to the T.  It might help you to have some control over the situation and certainly it would be beneficial for them to hear what happened with you.

Also wanted to let you know there are some good resources for locating a trauma T, spotting ones that are questionable, and reporting T's here - https://cptsd.org/forum/index.php?topic=2518.0.

[Boatsetsailrose]

Hi Bix thank u for sharing its good to hear all sides.. Sad to hear it was hard for u..
My understanding too is people can get emdr trained on a fast route so debatable the quality of that.
The service I am going to doesn't offer emdr so its out of the equasion for me. I want really feeling I wanted to anyway..
I've chosen CAT instead and feel happy ill be working on the relational healing as this is an area that is calling

[mikenoodle]

imprinting is the act of bonding that takes place at life's earliest stages. The dictionary definition is the recognition of a parent or some other object of habitual trust

[I like vanilla]

I'm with Bix. I tried EMDR with an EMDR specialist and it just made me worse.

The problem was compounded by the fact that so many see this is a miracle treatment/cure so negative results get pooh-poohed too easily. On top of that, I was told that I was not responding properly not because the treatment was wrong for me but some combination of I was in denial and/or resistant to being treated (at all) and/or I just needed to find someone who did it properly, I was seeing a therapist so therefore could not know what I was talking about, and/or anything other than the fact that EMDR just made me get worse instead of better. Essentially I was being gaslighted by the people who were supposed to be supportive of me and my treatment needs.

Be careful of EMDR and know that it might work for many but it is also harmful to many of us. If it works for you then more power to you. However, if it is making you worse then it is OK to say so and try something else, no matter what anyone tells you about it.

p.s. I have responded very positively to sensory motor psychotherapy so all of the baloney trying to make it my fault is just that, baloney.

[Blueberry]

all of the baloney trying to make it my fault is just that, baloney.

I agree, that is all baloney! I'm sorry it happened to you. Also all that "resistant to treatment" - I've had that thrown at me too. It's baloney. Find the right treatment combined with right therapist for you and there won't be "resistance". ime anyway.

[sanmagic7]

i am an emdr therapist, and i know it''s not always going to work for everyone - just like 12-step programs don't work for every addict.  i'm working w/ an emdr therapist right now, and she's going at my pace, which i think is important from the beginning.

to say that you're resistant is a cop-out on the t's part.  there are no resistant clients, only t's who don't know how to deal w/ the pain, fear, and traumatic resilience of a client.  baloney is a great word for it!

honestly, this saddens my heart to the core when people are blamed for not being able to progress in therapy, no matter what kind of therapy it might be.  it is never the client's fault.  it may be the wrong fit between client and t, or between client and treatment type, but there should (and i use that word here carefully) never be blame placed on the client.  never.

sending love and hugs to all of you, hoping everyone finds their own best way to diminish this c-ptsd beast.

[Eyessoblue]

I just wanted to add that what is so important is first finding an emdr therapist who is experienced in trauma and one that you can relate to, if you don't have a good connection with the them , it won't work you have to be able to trust and believe for it to do so. On the nhs you can get emdr but you only get offered so many sessions and if you've got cptsd the chances are you'll need loads and time is not on your side..... I had an amazing nhs emdr therapist but got up to 12 sessions at a time, most only get around 8, this isn't even enough to gain your trust, so would def go private if you can afford to, otherwise it's backwards and forwards and waiting list after waiting list, I tried private but didn't pick a great choice so ended up finishing with her, it does work but the importance of  finding the right person to help is top of the list. I'm going to reapply and go back to my nhs therapist but know I have a long journey ahead of me.

[sanmagic7]

i agree w/ you, esb - the relationship between client and t is really important.  it's really a shame that w/ nhs you are so limited.  a lot of insurance companies in the u.s. do something similar - they determine how many sessions they're willing to pay for.  like, 12 sessions for depression, 8 or so for anxiety, stuff like that.  at least, that's how it used to be.  i've been out of their game so long i don't know if it's changed, but i hope so.  it's the clients who are always the losers.

good luck in getting back to the t who helped you.  love and hugs!

[Libby183]

Hi, Eyessoblue. Like San Magic, I hope you get more therapy with the therapist who you feel most confident in.

I remember we talked a lot about EMDR in the past. I didn't feel it had helped me at the time, but now I can look back, I am starting to believe that the treatment itself did have an positive effect. I didn't trust the therapist fully, especially as she was so definite that I needed to forgive my parents. But I do think that the EMDR set me on a path to healing. It was gradual, and mixed with the trauma of my husbands illness and death. But something changed. I stood up to my parents, gained much more self belief and so much better self esteem. I wonder if emdr finally shifted my terrible fear of them, that was instilled, I suspect, from birth.

Interestingly, a psychiatrist I saw earlier in the year was shocked that I had had emdr. It's all very complicated, isn't it?

Libby xxx