EMDR Word Association

We continued EMDR for the first time in several weeks. (We as a system have been too strssed out to handle it lately.)

We aren't able to handle the T touching us as she wanted to do originally so we're currently using vibrators touching against my knees. The T says that what we're doing right now is building the foundations to get up to memory work.

First, we are working with safe place word association. This involves first of all coming up with something to put emotions into should they come up at inappropriate times. Then the idea of a safe place is very important.

Genesis was able to offer a lot of advice for being which was surprising since she does not talk very often. Some of the good ones she suggested were to focus on external stimuli - ex: there are no dangerous noises at the moment.

After safe place was established, we did word association. The idea was to get an image associated with an emotion without feeling anything. This was very, very hard. I don't remember what the first word was, but the second word was "helplessness." I was supposed to come up with an image but if any negative emotions came up I was supposed to distance myself from them. I'd focus on "seeing" an emotion while the vibrators vibrated for about 10 seconds to a minute. Then I would describe what I saw. We'd discuss it and then look at the image at least one more time to insure the image didn't change. We managed to finish maybe four or five words in 90 minutes which...doesn't sound like a lot, but it really, really felt like a lot. The hardest part was probably trying to keep emotions out of the equation. Some words brought up a lot of emotions. The T said that getting images with emotions versus just images indicated a memory behind something and that we would deal with that later once the groundwork of EMDR was done being laid.

Once we finished word association, we'll go over years and finally memory work. I'll let you all know how that works once we get into it.

Wow, LittleRedDog, thank you so much for sharing. That is all very interesting. It also makes me wonder what the heck my last T was thinking when she just dove into EMDR with me recalling one of my most traumatic experiences I had in my adulthood. No prep, no going slow, no word associations or safe places. I was completely numb before, during, and after. Makes me feel pretty good about having said goodbye to that one!

It's a relatively new way of approaching EMDR, apparently. My T was doing the old style of EMDR until she went to a seminar on this type of EMDR in October. This newer EMDR builds foundations to deal with pre-verbal stuff as well as stuff as you grew. My T has likened it to fixing a house - it won't stand no matter what unless you attend the foundation first. I like that there's a huge emphasis on being safe while doing it. I really, really do.

So interesting!

My current T does EMDR and was quite horrified of the stories about my EMDR sessions with my last T.

Do you know what kind of EMDR it is by any chance? Does it have a name? I have a strong feeling most of the traumas held by me and my parts happened pre-verbally. I have no evidence to back it up, but the feeling is quite overwhelming. I think it partly has to do with the fact that I have flashbacks that involve overwhelming fear and terror, but never any visual to go with it. I once read somewhere that those types of flashbacks could indicate the trauma happened pre-verbally, since the brain doesn't have words to describe the experience, just purely emotions.

I don't recall the name at the moment, but I'll ask my T when I see her next week, or if I remember it later then I'll let you know, Brandic. Unfortunately, searching in google for "pre-verbal EMDR" and "preverbal EMDR" brings up a lot of results (many of which look fascinating!) but no name that I noticed in my quick glance-through. I'll keep searching and just ask if I can't remember.

Thanks!!