EMDR FORUM ARCHIVE, 2000
I have several views on this
Diane · 12/18/02 at 2:54 PM ET
Hi, Using the bilateral stimulation CD in conjuction with the EMDR evened out the energy of switching for me. Switching was always like being overdosed on caffeine for me, except when I was either doing Reiki, or with another Reiki practioner, or using the bilateral stimulation CD. And I could not easily access any parts or communicate with them before I started using the CD. Before they came when they were stimulated and it was nearly always energetically chaotic. That wasn't the reason I got the CD, though. I got it to bring the affect down. But after the first session when I saw that everyone came to the meeting area quickly and easily with the CD, I used that, and I found that this alone, brought the affect down to manageable levels always. And the bilateral stimulation gave me the ability to "know" each of these others. Before I couldn't access that information. All I could see were the effect that the others had on people around them, and know them second hand. I really didn't have much of a clue what each one was all about. Using the bilateral stimulation, I could go in and "touch" them and know who they were, how they saw themselves, who they were involved with, how they saw the world, and that was pretty amazing. So much information was shared in such a short period of time, three days seemed like three years. And both Reiki and EMDR can be conceptualized as either an energy discipline or as a physiological process. On one level doing Reiki enables me to empathize with the client's body, and I "feel" where their physical pain is. I always check with the client to confirm that my perceptions are accurate before I continue the session. And this really can't be explained by anything outside of energy transfer. So there is some kind of connection there that is a form of transcendent energy transfer back and forth. And Reiki does release blockages held in the physical body, and that also is a mystery to me. I did have one very interesting experience when doing Reiki energy work on another high level practioner. I was extremely hot and cold at the same time and felt simultaneously as though standing in a sauna and a winter gale. This person felt very energetically drained at the time our session began, because of simultaneous huge life crises she was dealing with. But after the session, my energy level was as high as it gets when there is massive switching going on, but it was not chaotic, and I was not switching. Humans were never meant to be physically isolated. It makes us physically sick and depressed. And touch alone, touching or being touched by someone else, stimulates auto-regulation of seratonin systems in the brain. And that promotes physical health, stimulates the immune system, evens out emotional states, and promotes relaxation and feelings of social and inner well-being. Reiki also serves this same function. And looked at one way, childhood trauma victims are conditioned to the traumatic state, with all the concommitant chemical releases in the brain. That is why we often feel as though we are in the middle of a trauma when we're not. Time dilation, body stiffness, poor immune response, feeling cloudy and unreal, hypervigilance, extreme memory recall for details... all these things were always a normal state for me. So, doing Reiki with others was also a way to retrain my brain for a state of normalcy. It is hard to feel inappropriate trauma experiences when you are touching and nurturing another human being or being touched in a nurturing and relaxing way yourself. This is also why pets, cats, stuffies are important to us. To a certain extend these serve the same function. And Reiki with a dissociative client does the same for them - lets them know what normal touch is for. And I really believe that for those who can tolerate it, EMDR using fingertip pressure on the knees in conjunction with auditory bilateral stimulation is way preferable to following fingers across the field of vision. I always had a way harder time having something coming across my field of vision than with the knee presses. For me the finger movement was threatening and triggering. The touch of her fingertips on my knees was connecting and nurturing. And her cognitive weave in this intimate space was nurturing as well. I didn't feel shouted at, like I did when the sessions were done with her physically removed by the space between us. And that and the ability to close my eyes and process, brought the defenses down in a safe way, and I think this was also key to the rapidity of the sucesses I experienced in this go-round of therapy. Diane
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