EMDR...thoughts...??

[Ta2grrl]

I recently began seeing a counseller due to many childhood issues that have transferred over to my adult life, including alcohol abuse, emotional abuse and neglect by my parents...as well as to deal with my recent breakup with a partner who is dying of cancer. My counceller has recommended EMDR...which I had never heard of previously...but when I read up on it a bit online it seemed a bit iffy.

Has anyone here ever had this kind of therapy before of know anyone who has...and has it been successful?? Any drawbacks??

Here's an article that I found on it for those who were as unaware of this process as I was!!

http://www.emdr.com/briefdes.htm

Cheers,

Erin

[JeffreyWKramer]

I don't practice EMDR - I haven't been able to find the bucks or the time for the training - but it is an acceptable treatment for some problems, particularly PTSD. We don't really know how it works (some of the proposed explanations are, frankly, nonsense), but both anecdotal evidence and numerous clinical studies (including some done by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Veteran's Administration) have demonstrated efficacy. I've seen it work well with some clients, and it can sometimes shorten treatment dramatically. One of my colleagues at work has training in EMDR, and she uses it regularly with some clients, to good effect.

Make sure your therapist has adequate training and credentialing in the technique, as EMDR is not a good technique for people to try without proper training. If she does have such credentials/training, from what you mention about your issues, I'd say EMDR is a perfectly valid and reasonable approach that has some potential to be quite helpful.

[Ta2grrl]

Apparently my therapist does have training in this technique so...I guess trying something new never hurts...?? Could you recommend something that might be MORE useful or is this EMDR thingy about the best there is besides just plain old talking...??

Cheers,

Erin

[JeffreyWKramer]

Apparently my therapist does have training in this technique so...I guess trying something new never hurts...?? Could you recommend something that might be MORE useful or is this EMDR thingy about the best there is besides just plain old talking...??

At this time, the two standard therapies for dealing with the sorts of issues you mentioned are cognitive-behavioral therapy or a combo of EMDR with some cognitive-behavioral therapy. Depending on a lot of factors, one or the other might be more appropriate for a given client, which is where the clinician judgement comes in. "Just talking" does little; cognitive-behavioral therapy aims at changing thought patterns and encouraging the person to make positive changes in behavior patterns. It may seem like "just talking", compared to the fairly novel techniques of EMDR, but CBT is really a fairly active therapy approach.

Since your therapist apparently has the training and credentials, and has presumably talked to you about your issues/problems and made the determination that EMDR is likely to be helpful, I'd recommend going with that. Let us know how it goes.