What type of therapy have you had so far?

[Francine]

Hi A.J.

How r u doing?  I've finished my DBT skills group training and I'm very glad about it.  Now my therapist has recommened that I have EMDR therapy.  I don't know much about it.  I've read a few articles on it but besides that nothing and I don't think that I fully understand it.  Do u know what EMDR therapy is about?  Have u ever heard about it and what r the results of someone taking it?  I would appreciate your point of view?

Best regards,
Francine

[A.J. Mahari]

Hi A.J.

How r u doing?  I've finished my DBT skills group training and I'm very glad about it.  Now my therapist has recommened that I have EMDR therapy.  I don't know much about it.  I've read a few articles on it but besides that nothing and I don't think that I fully understand it.  Do u know what EMDR therapy is about?  Have u ever heard about it and what r the results of someone taking it?  I would appreciate your point of view?

Best regards,
Francine

Hi Francine,

How's this for a quick reply Same day!

I'm doing well thanks! Congratulations on finishing your DBT group. I actually get asked this question a lot by clients I am coaching who have BPD who are also seeing a therapist who suggests EMDR to them. Reading up on it is a good idea. I think that Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) may be more difficult to understand (how it works and so forth) because it is different in its approach than many other modalities of therapy.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy developed by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro. From Dr. Shapiro's website:
EMDR " ... has been so well researched that it is now recommended as a front line treatment for trauma in the Practice Guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association, and those of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Dr. Shapiro is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, Executive Director of the EMDR Institute in Watsonville, CA, and founder and President Emeritus of the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs, a non-profit organization that coordinates disaster response and low fee trainings worldwide."

I have not only heard of EMDR but I have undergone EMDR in the past. It was very helpful in many different ways. It was a very different experience because it wasn't the same as "talk therapy". I found it to be very calming and that in the "reprocessing" via eye movement I got in touch with a lot of deep emotions. This is why one needs to be ready for EMDR in terms of having learned distress tolerance skills as you did in DBT therapy because for many people, at first, EMDR, can bring up a lot of feelings.

I would suggest that you talk to your therapist some more about it so that he/she can answer any specific question you might have or address any concerns you might have.

You can read more about EMDR on this Forum and then follow the links from what I have quoted here to the original site source.

[Francine]

HI A.J.,

Thank you for your response.  Wow also in the same day, my luck must be increasing. The information you profided is excellent but I know how intensive it can be and I think that's what I'm afraid of.  But I say to myself if I made it through DBT, I can make it through EMDR.  I like challenges.  I'm not a person to give up without trying and if I don't try, I'll never know.

Best regards,
Francine

[A.J. Mahari]

HI A.J.,

Thank you for your response.  Wow also in the same day, my luck must be increasing. The information you profided is excellent but I know how intensive it can be and I think that's what I'm afraid of.  But I say to myself if I made it through DBT, I can make it through EMDR.  I like challenges.  I'm not a person to give up without trying and if I don't try, I'll never know.

Best regards,
Francine

Quick response. I'm still here working on a few things

You are welcome. I think it's natural to fear to the unknown. Natural to have some fear of anything intense. You sure can make it through and since your therapist, who knows you well, is recommending EMDR he/she must feel it will really be of benefit to you. I think you will be, in the long run, pleased with the experience. When I had EMDR years ago, I too was afraid of it. It was different. It wasn't all about talking. It was really about things being re-processed on a neurological level in a different way and I think that's what causes the feelings to be aroused. Feelings that DBT has taught you to cope with. Feelings that all types of therapy work to teach people with BPD.

Let us know how it goes!

[Francine]

Hi A.J.,

My psychiatrist and my therapist are both leaving .  My therapist was the facilitator at the center for BPD clients as well as for the DBT program.  Since he is leaving, I have to change to another category, into the adult category.  The other clinicians don't know much about BPD and don't have much DBT training.  So I will have to let go of the EMDR process that I had started .  I thought it was going pretty well.  For me, it's like I have to start all over again and don't know what I'll be working on since the others don't do DBT.  I'm quite loss and don't know what to expect.  My therapist said he would look into it that I have someone with which I will do well with.  I'm very dissapointed cause DBT has helped me a great deal and now well I don't have any hopes anymore.  Just wanted to let u know.

Best regards,
Francine 

[Linda]

Hi!

I have had CBT, EMDR and just yesterday started with DBT. EMDR seemed to help at first to ease my nightmares. I have been through three psychologists and a psychiatrist these past two years.
I really hope that DBT will help. My therapist wants to do the sessions every other week and she said that I will finish with DBT in half a year from now. I am not doing group therapy.

Linda