Have you ever had experience of EMDR?

Question

EMDR is an acronym for 'Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing' and I am interested in finding out more from those who have tried it. Have you benefited from this?

Answer 1

I did, indeed, benefit from it. The technique is thought to elicit deeply held, painful experiences from the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system in the brain.
My therapist used a horizontal light board and headphones, rather than the older technique with the therapist using hand signals. The light board makes the data more measurable, easier to control the speed of the stimuli, and reliable.
The experience can be quite intense, but I'd recommend it to anyone who suffers from PTSD.

Answer 2

EMDR sounds like such an insane way of treating psychiatric illness that it immediately raises a red flag in my mind. A few years back, "60 minutes" did a story on it, saying how it worked for PTSD, and I still wasn't impressed.

Then my psychiatrist decided to try it on me. The thing is, I didn't believe that it would work, and didn't expect it to work, and it did.

That was many years ago, so I decided to do a search of the medical literature to find out if there had been any good studies on it. There have been a lot of studies, and they fairly commonly show a statistically significant improvement over placebo or over treatment with drugs. So I am beginning to be a believer.

One great advantage to this treatment is that it is fast. A person with PTSD can start leading a normal life in a couple of weeks.

Answer 3

I have indeed benefitted from EMDR. My therapist used it to help me get past PTSD from a rape I suffered.

Answer 4

There is a lot of info on this google search page http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%27Eye+Movement+Desensitization+and+Reprocessing%27+&spell=1

Answer 5

Nope, sorry