Hey survivors and thrivers, it's Sophilia Lark-Woodbury at the happymeetium.com. So
what happens when a gold standard treatment such as EMDR doesn't actually do the job to
help you heal? This video is going to reveal why EMDR by itself doesn't work, and what
approaches actually work to help you successfully navigate your journey through complex PTSD.
So keep watching. For the best trauma recovery tips, tools,
and strategies be sure to hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell so
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Hey everybody, welcome back. If this is your first time here, I am a survivor of complex
trauma, a licensed professional counselor, a trauma recovery coach, and a certified clinical
trauma specialist helping people and organizations resolve the effects of trauma and build resilience.
So EMDR is a trauma-focused treatment that uses its own phase approach to primarily treat
single event traumas. But when it comes to complex PTSD, which is a repeated trauma over
a prolonged period of time, typically in the context of an interpersonal relationship.
I know from my own experience as a survivor of complex trauma and complex PTSD as well
as from the stories of other people who struggle with complex PTSD, that EMDR by itself just
doesn't reach far enough into the deeply rooted issues of complex PTSD symptoms.
And so what actually works then? Can you actually recover with EMDR? And I think the answer
is yes, but. Research actually supports a phase-based model approach to treat complex
PTSD. And if you didn't watch my video on the first line interventions for complex PTSD
treatment, I'll link it here in the cards and I'll also put a link to it in the description
where you watch that video. I think it will give you a little bit more information than
what I'm going to give you here. But that's what research supports, a phase-based
treatment approach. Now this can include EMDR, but typically the first phase of this phase-based
approach. So there's three phases. And in the first phase, there's going to be significant
work that needs to be done upfront before you can even dive into EMDR.
So we're talking about addressing issues such as emotion dysregulation problems, relationship
difficulties, self-esteem issues, dissociation, somatic distress in the body, negative belief
systems. So just by naming those things, I can think of at least three therapies that
need to be applied. So you can already see that EMDR is not enough.
So when we're talking about this, that first phase is about stabilizing the person and
strengthening the skills that they will need to go into the trauma processing part, which
is EMDR. So it's like why would you start processing the trauma when you don't even
have the skills and the ability to be able to understand why this is going to make sense
for you. Now I know EMDR has a preparation phase where
they assess and take a history and assess for resources, but those resources are more
about grounding yourself and being able to breathe and people that you can rely on and
all those kinds of things, which are good and which they are a part of that sort of
upfront work that needs to be done in phase one.
But there are some things that EMDR doesn't target before it jumps into the memory processing
and those things like dissociation. EMDR can apply treatments that address that, but a
person who significantly who spaces out all the time and they can't really benefit from
trauma processing, there needs to be specific work done, particularly internal family systems
work where you're addressing the different parts of yourself and trying to bring those
parts back together where you can help yourself not space out so much.
There's other treatments for that too. Then addressing the significant negative beliefs
pumped up by what you call an inner critic and an outer critic, and so those things need
to be addressed. You need to be able to properly grieve the losses that you experienced as
you were trying to survive the horrific trauma that you were going through when you were
younger. And so all of those things need to be in place.
I think most importantly is psychoeducation, a person understanding how trauma has conditioned
them, how complex trauma has conditioned them has essentially rewired the brain.
And so you think a certain way, you feel a certain way, you relate to other people a
certain way because of this sort of indoctrinated cultic-like process. You've been conditioned
to think a certain way because your brain has been wired with a traumatic trajectory.
And so a person understanding that complex PTSD is a learned thing. It's a learned stress
disorder. And if I can learn it, I can unlearn it. That can make a world of difference for
a person. And so now they believe in themselves. They believe that they can learn what they
need to learn to start processing the trauma. And that is the biggest thing that I've seen
in terms of a person being able to have the motivation and the belief in themselves that
they could actually do the work and that nothing is really wrong with them.
They're not really flawed, but they were just responding in a way, the best way that they
could. They were essentially forced to adapt in this dysfunctional way to start responding
from that sympathetic hot system where they're constantly on threat and they feel like they
have to be bracing for something that's coming. They have this sense of dread.
But if you can unlearn those negative, dysfunctional adaptive behaviors and replace those with
health promoting behaviors, then that can make the difference. And so that's what phase
one would teach a person. And then you hop into phase two.
Phase two. This is where the actual trauma memory processing happens. So we've done that
significant work upfront of stabilizing and strengthening the skills of the person through
psychoeducation, helping them to cognitively restructure some of those negative beliefs,
maybe to decrease dissociation, to decrease the distress in their body.
And so now they have the skills to be able to move into this next phase where they're
processing those unresolved memories, those memories that sort of have been locked in
place as unprocessed. And so now they're opening up that box to really go through the details
of the trauma and how what happened, what they did to survive and where they are now
and them trying to get to the other side. This is where that that significant work will
really help to be that foundation for them, especially when they start to become overwhelmed.
They start seeing the person or the situation that they were in and they start to feel really
distressed that they'll be able to use those resources and an understanding that they gained
first to be able to get through and process the memory fully and resolve it.
Here's another reason why I think EMDR doesn't work, too, especially even when you get into
the memory processing part of it and it may take another type of therapy to help resolve
this. Another reason that EMDR doesn't work is because for a lot of clients, some of the
aspects of protocol that EMDR involves can hamper the process.
Some aspects of EMDR, like negative cognitions and positive cognitions and validity of cognitions
and subjective units of distress, it stops the process because it's asking a person and
say, "Okay, I know you've been doing all this processing, but can you rate on a scale of
this one to 10 how you feel it in your body?| Or how true that thought is for you right
now that you're a lovable person or whatever and a person's really going like, "I really
don't feel, I really don't have anything positive to say right now."
"I'm trying to get through this memory.” Or, they may say, “how do I know? I know
it says subjective, but if I say it's a 10 maybe it's really a four and why are we talking
about this anyway?" I think a lot of people tend to think that, that's is kind of insensitive.
It feels like the therapist is more committed to the protocol than they are to personalizing
that treatment for the person that is sitting right in front of them. Instead of trying
to apply this broad sweep, this one size fits all type of approach. And I think that turns
some people off. And so that's another reason why EMDR may not work.
And the final phase is transitioning and thriving. This is where you're going to use the skills
and the knowledge and the understanding of all that you've learned in therapy and take
out into society, into your living community. This is beyond therapy. So this is planning
for when you leave. This can include prepare for a new job or a new career change going
back to school or going to school for the first time. It could also include things such
as what you're interested in. So the thing about recovering from complex
PTSD is now you're beginning a new way of life. So you're creating new beginnings, new
opportunities, things that you didn't quite, you didn't get to learn because you were busy
surviving. Now this is the time to start implementing some of those things. And so whatever those
things are for you, this is a part of your transition plan.
So put those in there and maybe you can even prepare for or plan for refresher sessions.
Therapy sessions that you may need to address a new life issue. Maybe it wasn't something
that you addressed when you were in therapy, but now something else has come up and you
don't quite know what to do about it. And so you can add that to your plan like
if this happens, this is who I can call or I can contact. And it may not even be a therapist,
it may just be a coach or it might be your best friend or whoever. So that really is
how you get through and recover from the symptoms of complex PTSD. You go through the initial
phase of stabilization and you go through the therapy and successfully process those
memories, however long that takes and then you plan for the rest of your life. And that's
basically it. All right, well that will do it for today.
Thank you very much for joining me today. If you liked this video, be sure to show some
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see you in the next video. Bye-bye.