Duration of Treatment

This forum is obviously not the place to discuss individual cases, but all of the clients I referred to have been using EMDR for more than two years as the main therapy. All of them had 5-15 years of psychotherapy previously. My own experience has been that talk therapy did result in tremendous changes in my life. But since I've gone back to therapy we have been mostly doing EMDR sessions because I find that EMDR goes deeper. I don't have anything to talk about--I'm happy with my life. But the anxiety that's come back to haunt me again makes it hard to enjoy. The anxiety isn't about anything in particular, ie it isn't about my present life at all. I know intellectually that there's no basis to the negative beliefs I still hold, but those beliefs keep coming back because they're emotionally rooted and I hope (and think) that EMDR can reduce their hold on me. I've noticed improvements so far. To get personal just for a minute, I was sexually abused very young and though I enjoy intimacy with my husband very much, talk therapy just couldn't get at my anxiety about letting him know that I wanted to make love. EMDR has changed that. At least some of the time. I just think it's important for people with histories of child abuse or neglect to realize that EMDR, even after years of talk therapy, can involve investing a couple of years or more of hard work.

Replies:

Re:Duration of Treatment, by Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD, 04/02/01

| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |

Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.