Re:EMDR on ECT patients

I'm not sure what the benefits of using ECT prior to EMDR might be theorized to be, but as a rule one prefers to only have one new big change at a time. One might, for example, start the EMDR and see how it goes, knowing one could always add the other later on.

I am guessing that your story is a complicated one, and I'm sure I don't have anywhere near sufficient information to offer an opinion on your case. The following therefore must necessarily be a general statement.

In general, there may be a conflict or discrepancy between the usual purpose of ECT and the usual purpose of EMDR. With EMDR, we tend to get at emotions, sensations, and memory that has been held apart, or disowned. We resolve it, reassociate it, neutralize its toxic effect and make new meaning of it. This makes both feelings (such as anxiety and depression) and thoughts shift to an adaptive resolution. In contrast, ECT tends to disconnect associations, blur and detach from intensity of affect and memory, so the two approaches may work at cross purposes. I don't know if EMDR would even work if ECT has rearranged ones internal furniture, so to speak. Perhaps another reader has more experience and can comment on this combination.

Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD
Walnut Creek, California

Replies:

Re:EMDR on ECT patients, by Just_Me ???, 09/21/00

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