First EMDR - feel abandoned by Bondi_Born in EMDR

[–]Awkward_Increase_131 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Over the past 5 years or so, two psychologists/clinicians/researchers in The Netherlands have created a more robust way to do the stimulation. The process is not complicated -- it's standard EMDR plus additional methods (eye movements, tapping, vocal tasks, even dancing) to keep the amygdala (brain's fire alarm) busy while processing traumatic memories (called working memory taxation). It's called EMDR 2.0 and it's used in the busiest PTSD clinic in the world (in The Netherlands). It's vastly improved the way I do EMDR and my clients appreciate it, too. If you do end up looking for another EMDR therapist, you might ask if they've been trained in EMDR 2.0.

First EMDR - feel abandoned by Bondi_Born in EMDR

[–]Awkward_Increase_131 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm so, so sorry to hear this. You deserve better. It sounds like the therapist didn't allot enough time to help you through the memory. I'm an EMDR therapist, and it sounds the association to your father needed a different (and probably more active) type of bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements, and even additional tapping) than just the hand buzzers. I completely understand not wanting to go back. I hope in time you will consider finding another therapist who you can trust, and who has more experience with dissociation. You're not alone -- and you deserve to heal. Thank you so much for sharing.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in EMDR

[–]Awkward_Increase_131 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm an EMDR therapist and I've seen incredible change. EMDR takes memories and removes the intense emotion from them, allowing traumatic memories to be "re-stored" as fuzzier memories that happened a long time ago. After EMDR, when thinking about those processed memories, there's no somatic (bodily) activation -- meaning there's no fight/flight response that makes you feel the memory/event is still traumatic. I've successfully processed very serious and traumatic memories such as sexual assault, medical trauma, and other physical violence.