EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

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Hello all. I'm 56, female, high functioning autistic. I have PTSD from several traumas and abuse when I was a child. I just started EMDR therapy for the PTSD last Friday.

I'm wondering if anyone else here has any experience with EMDR? If so, was it helpful? How many sessions did you have before you saw a significant improvement in your emotions, as in feeling less sad, or hurt or anxious?

Hello. I started doing EMDR with my councilor about a month ago. According to my research into other people's research, EMDR isn't any more successful than traditional exposure based cognitive-behavioral therapies, but it isn't any worse either. I like flashing lights so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. My only suggestion would be to make sure your therapist takes it really slow. My councilor started slow with the very first visualization but after that she barreled immediately into the traumatic event. I reacted......well, let's say extremely poorly. If you have a pattern of extreme reactions, I think it's really important to build up to the main event in an incredibly controlled manner, and don't go faster than you think you're capable. Personally I'll probably not continue with EMDR because things that elicit such a strong reaction in me usually go on to cause that reaction by themselves afterwards.