Posted by partlycloudy on July 16, 2004, at 17:47:12
In reply to Re: EMDR number 3 » partlycloudy, posted by antigua on July 16, 2004, at 17:01:04
I fully expected this last session to be focused on disturbing memories (and that's what I had the nervous nellies about beforehand). I had seen my regular T the previous week and we concentrated on my anxieties and panic attacks. I specifically told each T to feel free to consult with each other on the progress of my treatment. So, when I came in for the EMDR, she presented what she'd talked to my other T about and I agreed that it was the right thing to work on.
The way we worked it was this: she had me visualize the "me" who had experienced those disturbing events in the past. They happened over several years, so it was easy to make a picture of the cornered, frightened, insecure woman I'd become. She had me visualize these cords that attached myself to these disturbing memories, as many cords as memories I had. It looked like a bunch of balloons like the pervo's used to sell in parks or that Steven King has in his books.
Then she asked me to bring up an image of these golden scissors. It was at that point we did the eyes back and forth, and she talked to me while I was following her fingers. She had me cut each cord individually and let it leave, then imagined bathing the area where it attached to my middle with water.
I had been terrified of confronting these memories indivudally; instead we confronted how I felt about them. That is how I was able to move through them. I felt a lovely sense of peace, and she guided me through meditation at the end to thank the old cords for what they taught me, and started creating new cords to the life I live now. That seemed to be what targeted the anxiety - actually cutting myself off from the past, and reminding myself that living in the present is all we really can do.
On the Social board I posted to SandyWeb about her traumatic past ("This is Me") with what I learned from that session.
Someone I work with has dealt with grief for way too long - she asked me for names and phone numbers so she could be evaluated for this treatment too. It has made such a *marked* difference in the "me" the public sees.
poster:partlycloudy
thread:366600
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040716/msgs/366942.html