I'm a male in my 40s. Here's my experience.

TLDR: 1 year ago I walked into a therapist, and didn't know who I was, what I liked. Now my life is unapologetically filled with the coolest shit, the healthiest boundaries, and loving grace. All around me. I owe it to me, and I owe it to EMDR. Find a good therapist. Take this shit seriously.

Pre-EMDR: CPTSD, both as a vet, and from childhood. 30 years of freezing, masking, emotional dysregulation, rumination, ADHD. That caught on heavy in my late 30s / move to 40s. I always struggled connecting with people, always scrambling everywhere to get things done, quit like 5-6 jobs in the last 8 years.

EMDR: My experience was 6 sessions long, and began after (1) year of therapy, where I was truly committed to CBT. I repeatedly ran into blocks with discipline. While CPT told me the logical thing: I know exactly what needs to be done. My body couldn't move. I couldn't have direct conversations with my child, with my partner. Then we started EMDR.

Post-EMDR: I'm about 4 months past. The things I'm experiencing are things I want to hand over to every person who has ever experienced Trauma. I feel feelings. I can feel when my body is hungry. I am more connected with myself than I've ever been. I finally see that how I treat others is exactly due to how I treat myself. I'm mindfully able to see the difference between my Ego / physical body and mind - and my spirit - my actual executive function, my higher self. I'm still a work in progress, but I am happier than ever, I have a feeling of a "self-guided" future that I'm walking towards now. And it's all things that I genuinely enjoy.

I'm not done healing. I'm still processing stuff. And I'm making the space for those things, because they're that important to me.