Re: downfalls of EMDR?

It is hard to talk very specifically about pitfalls without more specific details and history, all of which are not appropriate to share here. The first thing to do might be to have a conversation with your therapist about EMDR (if they are trained in EMDR) or if you were referred to an EMDR therapist to ask to talk to this therapist about EMDR before making any committment to do EMDR. A well trained EMDR theapist should be happy to spend time talking to you about the potential benefits and risks. Also, a trained EMDR therapist would only proceed with EMDR after a careful evaluation and discussion with you about not only the appropirateness of EMDR (and EMDR is not appropirate for everyone) and how people react to EMDR. One of the general risks is that rather intense emotional material can be brought up. If you are unprepared for that it can be quite distressing. The best way to guard against this is to talk with the EMDR therapist first (to answer your questions and deal with your concerns) and to make sure that you have a well trained therapist (given the brief information you presented about your self I would stuggest that you work with a therapist who has completed Level II training rather than one who has only completed Level I training). There are clear steps and procedures that can be used to minimize the experiencing an intense emotional reaction and to help you deal with it should it occurr.

Hope this helps.

Bob

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