I use the VirtualEMDR self guided website for about $70/month for unlimited sessions. The interface is excellent and customizable. I have done many sessions over the past several years, usually at night or on a weekend, and it has been life-changing when talk therapy is stalling out. It’s exhausting, and it brings up memories that I didn’t even realize were unsettling, like the light during a certain time of year. But once the memory is there, I can press on it, hard, until most of the venom is drained, and now it’s a simpler memory. I know that September is and will always have stressful memories, but they no longer feel like active threats. Staying in the session to exhaustion, with a fast figure 8 pattern, works best for me. I pick a simple statement to repeat over and over silently to describe what I am trying to desensitize. “The fall light feels unsafe.” I will pick an even simpler one to install a positive thought pattern. “I am safe right now.” The statements may evolve as I am repeating them. Then I fall asleep afterward, and sometime over the next day or two I realize I feel noticeably calmer. Sometimes I do multiple sessions on one “memory.”
EMDR is never something I look forward to, but I know it usually works pretty quickly. I go back to it for a few sessions when my anxieties ramp up every year or so, which is a pretty strong attachment for distractible, avoidant me.
Thank you for this entire share but especially for giving a specific example that just happened to resonate with me- “The fall light feels unsafe”. Something happens to me seasonally and I’ve been minimizing it for many years -“it’s just that it’s getting darker and a biochemical thing is happening” - but I know that there’s more waiting to be acknowledged and it brings a wave of dread with it each year. Appreciate hearing about your approach.
I use the VirtualEMDR self guided website for about $70/month for unlimited sessions. The interface is excellent and customizable. I have done many sessions over the past several years, usually at night or on a weekend, and it has been life-changing when talk therapy is stalling out. It’s exhausting, and it brings up memories that I didn’t even realize were unsettling, like the light during a certain time of year. But once the memory is there, I can press on it, hard, until most of the venom is drained, and now it’s a simpler memory. I know that September is and will always have stressful memories, but they no longer feel like active threats. Staying in the session to exhaustion, with a fast figure 8 pattern, works best for me. I pick a simple statement to repeat over and over silently to describe what I am trying to desensitize. “The fall light feels unsafe.” I will pick an even simpler one to install a positive thought pattern. “I am safe right now.” The statements may evolve as I am repeating them. Then I fall asleep afterward, and sometime over the next day or two I realize I feel noticeably calmer. Sometimes I do multiple sessions on one “memory.”
EMDR is never something I look forward to, but I know it usually works pretty quickly. I go back to it for a few sessions when my anxieties ramp up every year or so, which is a pretty strong attachment for distractible, avoidant me.
Thank you for this, both for your experience and for the head's up on the website.
Thank you for this entire share but especially for giving a specific example that just happened to resonate with me- “The fall light feels unsafe”. Something happens to me seasonally and I’ve been minimizing it for many years -“it’s just that it’s getting darker and a biochemical thing is happening” - but I know that there’s more waiting to be acknowledged and it brings a wave of dread with it each year. Appreciate hearing about your approach.
Great topic. Look forward to reading the text and the comments.