working with a client that seems to lack the awareness of how his memories are impacting him now/what beliefs are a result of the memory, and a part that has been presenting is one that is very resistance to the process and is quick to dismiss his feelings, exposing the belief that he's not "traumatized enough." It was extremely helpful to be reminded of the need for parts work and the exploration of this resistance rather than just the comforting of the fear alone. I plan to use the attachment resource as well! Thank you!
Thank you Thomas. I am currently completing EMDR basic training and at times struggle with the standard protocol. I have some training in IFS and find am intuitively adding parts work as needed. Glad to hear that it is as important as it seems to be. Always obtain permission and always check in with 'who' is present or running the show in that session.
The more I learn about EMDR, the more I realize how poorly done my experience with EMDR was. I don't think my therapist was experienced with treating complex PTSD. First of all, she did no prep work to make sure I had the skills to emotionally regulate and contain what came up between sessions. Fortunately I'd been doing somatic work for the last 2.5 years, so I had some skills anyway, but I still would have benefited from education and practice with containment. She should have at least made sure I really had the skills instead of just assuming I'd be fine. Processing my first target memory went really well. It was a shock trauma, and I had a complete episodic memory of it, which made it pretty ideal for processing. I didn't get overwhelmed, and I did process it. But that was the only trauma memory I could remember more than just fragments of. Next one I tried was a whale - an amalgamation of related traumatic events that happened regularly over many years. Trying to process that was like pulling on a ball of yarn and the whole thing started to unravel. All of my trauma was interconnected (since it was basically the entirety of the first 11 years of my life). I was biting off way more than I could chew. I shouldn't have gone that fast, and the therapist should have known better than to let me go that fast. She also should have known better than to open up that Pandora's box right before a 6 week break in our therapy (she was going on vacation and had some other obligations). I got so destabilized, it took me months to recover and put the lid back on that box. I had to stop doing EMDR entirely. I still haven't returned to it two years later. I've just been focusing on stabilization. I want to come back to doing EMDR again in the future and finish what I started, but I want to make sure I'm properly resourced first, because I do not want to get flooded like that again. I got hit with that abandonment trauma wound and it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. It was excruciating. Made me want to kill myself, despite being lucid and aware enough to realize that that pain was not likely to last more than a day at most. But even having to live with it that long felt like too much. There was no length of time that that pain could be tolerated. I got through it with support from a friend who was on the phone with me for three hours helping me regulate, but like... that was rough. I'm still glad I did EMDR, though, because boy did that change a lot. It was really intense, but I did actually process a good chunk of the trauma before getting too overwhelmed to continue. Now I don't get triggered as much as I used to, I don't have the same level of anxiety, and I can now assert boundaries, whereas before I couldn't because I would freeze up. I believe in the power of EMDR, but I also recognize how dangerous it can be if wielded incorrectly and without proper caution.
My trauma wound was activated for 6 months, body shook for that full 6 months violently. Happened in the 80's docs were not educated.. Saw into my subconscious and saw all the dynamics and blocks. Everything went passing in a film reel.Took about 15years to regain employment. Retraumatised recently , services are aware.....coming out of stuckness at 63. Retiring and getting out and about. Working with therapist with complex adoption. Years of memory loss. Becoming energised. Spent years in the 80's not even seeing colours, was so sunken/depressed. Through TH-cam have fathomed it all out, mostly with Gabor Mate but really find this vid really helpful. It's been a journey. Anyone else shook/ breakdown and saw into their subconscious without meds. It felt that i had been hit on the head with a paving stone and cried for 6 months. Would be interested to know.thanks.
hoo boy, the attachment portion of this video just makes me bawl. I have nothing for this that doesn't seem to trigger me. How will I ever develop an attachment figure that I can hold onto and remember? It'll take me so many expensive sessions just to try to develop a figure. Then I'm supposed to believe in it somehow? Maybe Jesus is actually not a bad idea. I'm atheist/agnostic but I do remember praying to him once or twice as a kid. It's all just magical thinking but at least millions of people seem to think Jesus is real.
@@Jesuslovesme.2 but Jesus said "why you call me good nobody is good except God" and also said "father is GREATER than I" "by myself I can do nothing" "I seek not to please myself but the one who sent me"
I’m curious if you have any content regarding working with adults who have no memory of their childhood trauma (but know it exists due to witnesses and also understand that the type of trauma they endured is affecting them in the present). Can emdr not start there because there is a not a memory of it? Is it dangerous to uncover that memory or necessary?
I would check to see if memories are simply not there, or if the client is struggling to find individual memories, because trauma was daily. Therefore, none of them really stand out.
If the latter, see: th-cam.com/video/oiwZp9ceh68/w-d-xo.html. If the first, start processing with the stuff that the client does have, even if it isn’t childhood stuff. Often stuff can come at a measured and safe rate when we work backwards.
One of the things that seem to block my clients is that they are yawning and feeling really tired. This happens so often and I keep having to stop. Should I be?
That is something that Richard Schwartz , the creator of IFS , talks about . When one or more protector parts prevents the self from acessing the ´´ child ´´ and its pain . You gotta ask permission for this so called protector to acess the inner child ( and the traumatic experiece associated )
I don't use EMDR but it's a somewhat similar process and yawning is usually a good sign that we are getting somewhere. It doesn't interfere with my sessions at all, but what I do is structured differently. Maybe just reframe how you're seeing this. The metaphor is that energy is shifting and barriers are dissipating. I point that out to my clients aand we keep going. The tiredness on the other hand is something else and usually shows up near the end of the sessions. When I notice it I ask how they are doing to see if they want to go on or wrap it up. My theory is this process just uses up a lot brain energy. I've personally experienced both these things in hundreds of sessions I've done on myself.
In my experience as a client, yawning is an indication that my parasympathetic nervous system has been activated, which means something has shifted and this is actually working because my body is starting to relax and come out of the hypervigilance. I have had sessions where I worked through something and just started yawning a whole bunch as a result. I always consider it a good sign if I start yawning, because then I know something is actually happening in my body and the trauma is getting metabolized.
working with a client that seems to lack the awareness of how his memories are impacting him now/what beliefs are a result of the memory, and a part that has been presenting is one that is very resistance to the process and is quick to dismiss his feelings, exposing the belief that he's not "traumatized enough." It was extremely helpful to be reminded of the need for parts work and the exploration of this resistance rather than just the comforting of the fear alone. I plan to use the attachment resource as well! Thank you!
Thank you, Thomas for sharing this priceless information! I didn't expect to find such valuable resources online for free! You are the best!❤
Thank you Thomas. I am currently completing EMDR basic training and at times struggle with the standard protocol. I have some training in IFS and find am intuitively adding parts work as needed. Glad to hear that it is as important as it seems to be. Always obtain permission and always check in with 'who' is present or running the show in that session.
Thomas Zimmermann you just rock! Thank you!
Very helpful, thank you so much
This was sooooo helpful!!! Thank you so much
Wow! Unbelievably helpful,many thanks.
This is such helpful information thank you vert much 🌟
The more I learn about EMDR, the more I realize how poorly done my experience with EMDR was. I don't think my therapist was experienced with treating complex PTSD. First of all, she did no prep work to make sure I had the skills to emotionally regulate and contain what came up between sessions. Fortunately I'd been doing somatic work for the last 2.5 years, so I had some skills anyway, but I still would have benefited from education and practice with containment. She should have at least made sure I really had the skills instead of just assuming I'd be fine.
Processing my first target memory went really well. It was a shock trauma, and I had a complete episodic memory of it, which made it pretty ideal for processing. I didn't get overwhelmed, and I did process it. But that was the only trauma memory I could remember more than just fragments of. Next one I tried was a whale - an amalgamation of related traumatic events that happened regularly over many years. Trying to process that was like pulling on a ball of yarn and the whole thing started to unravel. All of my trauma was interconnected (since it was basically the entirety of the first 11 years of my life). I was biting off way more than I could chew. I shouldn't have gone that fast, and the therapist should have known better than to let me go that fast. She also should have known better than to open up that Pandora's box right before a 6 week break in our therapy (she was going on vacation and had some other obligations). I got so destabilized, it took me months to recover and put the lid back on that box. I had to stop doing EMDR entirely. I still haven't returned to it two years later. I've just been focusing on stabilization.
I want to come back to doing EMDR again in the future and finish what I started, but I want to make sure I'm properly resourced first, because I do not want to get flooded like that again. I got hit with that abandonment trauma wound and it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. It was excruciating. Made me want to kill myself, despite being lucid and aware enough to realize that that pain was not likely to last more than a day at most. But even having to live with it that long felt like too much. There was no length of time that that pain could be tolerated. I got through it with support from a friend who was on the phone with me for three hours helping me regulate, but like... that was rough.
I'm still glad I did EMDR, though, because boy did that change a lot. It was really intense, but I did actually process a good chunk of the trauma before getting too overwhelmed to continue. Now I don't get triggered as much as I used to, I don't have the same level of anxiety, and I can now assert boundaries, whereas before I couldn't because I would freeze up. I believe in the power of EMDR, but I also recognize how dangerous it can be if wielded incorrectly and without proper caution.
Same
My trauma wound was activated for 6 months, body shook for that full 6 months violently. Happened in the 80's docs were not educated.. Saw into my subconscious and saw all the dynamics and blocks. Everything went passing in a film reel.Took about 15years to regain employment. Retraumatised recently , services are aware.....coming out of stuckness at 63. Retiring and getting out and about. Working with therapist with complex adoption. Years of memory loss. Becoming energised. Spent years in the 80's not even seeing colours, was so sunken/depressed. Through TH-cam have fathomed it all out, mostly with Gabor Mate but really find this vid really helpful.
It's been a journey.
Anyone else shook/ breakdown and saw into their subconscious without meds. It felt that i had been hit on the head with a paving stone and cried for 6 months. Would be interested to know.thanks.
Great information! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, this is very educational. Id like to ask if you are available?
hoo boy, the attachment portion of this video just makes me bawl. I have nothing for this that doesn't seem to trigger me. How will I ever develop an attachment figure that I can hold onto and remember? It'll take me so many expensive sessions just to try to develop a figure. Then I'm supposed to believe in it somehow? Maybe Jesus is actually not a bad idea. I'm atheist/agnostic but I do remember praying to him once or twice as a kid. It's all just magical thinking but at least millions of people seem to think Jesus is real.
Jesus is living God.. May God bless you
@@Jesuslovesme.2 but Jesus said "why you call me good nobody is good except God" and also said "father is GREATER than I" "by myself I can do nothing" "I seek not to please myself but the one who sent me"
I’m curious if you have any content regarding working with adults who have no memory of their childhood trauma (but know it exists due to witnesses and also understand that the type of trauma they endured is affecting them in the present). Can emdr not start there because there is a not a memory of it? Is it dangerous to uncover that memory or necessary?
I would check to see if memories are simply not there, or if the client is struggling to find individual memories, because trauma was daily. Therefore, none of them really stand out.
If the latter, see: th-cam.com/video/oiwZp9ceh68/w-d-xo.html. If the first, start processing with the stuff that the client does have, even if it isn’t childhood stuff. Often stuff can come at a measured and safe rate when we work backwards.
One of the things that seem to block my clients is that they are yawning and feeling really tired. This happens so often and I keep having to stop. Should I be?
That is something that Richard Schwartz , the creator of IFS , talks about . When one or more protector parts prevents the self from acessing the ´´ child ´´ and its pain . You gotta ask permission for this so called protector to acess the inner child ( and the traumatic experiece associated )
I don't use EMDR but it's a somewhat similar process and yawning is usually a good sign that we are getting somewhere. It doesn't interfere with my sessions at all, but what I do is structured differently. Maybe just reframe how you're seeing this. The metaphor is that energy is shifting and barriers are dissipating. I point that out to my clients aand we keep going. The tiredness on the other hand is something else and usually shows up near the end of the sessions. When I notice it I ask how they are doing to see if they want to go on or wrap it up. My theory is this process just uses up a lot brain energy. I've personally experienced both these things in hundreds of sessions I've done on myself.
In my experience as a client, yawning is an indication that my parasympathetic nervous system has been activated, which means something has shifted and this is actually working because my body is starting to relax and come out of the hypervigilance. I have had sessions where I worked through something and just started yawning a whole bunch as a result. I always consider it a good sign if I start yawning, because then I know something is actually happening in my body and the trauma is getting metabolized.
A patient cured is a customer lost and a person on meds makes a good customer.