This week, I thought I would try something a little different for my blog post. There has been more information in the news recently about trauma treatment, and I thought I would post a link round-up of interesting articles that I have come across in the past month.
EMDR is getting more attention in the news, and these two articles bring to light two people's experiences with EMDR. They also echo some of what I discussed in my post on how EMDR may sound like voodoo.
Humans Of New York Post Makes a Brilliant Point About Therapy
“At first I dreaded going to therapy. I went through a treatment called EMDR. My therapist would take me back to every point of trauma and have me describe it in detail…And when it was over I’d be completely exhausted. And I’d feel like a bitch because I’d just cried for an hour. But it worked. The symptoms started to go away. After a few sessions, I remember walking into my therapist’s office and saying: ‘This stuff actually works!’ And he said: ‘Yeah. It does.’”
She found relief for PTSD with a different kind of therapy. But does it work?
“EMDR, Henn said, allowed her to have a do-over — to be able to grieve properly and then to move beyond grief. She was finally able to remember the good times with her brother without being overwhelmed by pain.”
This question comes up a lot when I’m working with folks who have PTSD. How can friends and family members help? I think this article covers a few good pointers to remember.
How to Help a Friend with PTSD
“First things first: no, a person with PTSD is not just going to ‘snap out of it,’ and it's not very likely they're doing it for attention, considering that one of the prime diagnostic criteria is one or more "re-experiencing events" in which the sufferer is mentally catapulted back into their memory of the event. You can be helpful by being normal, sensitive, and educated, but PTSD does need a bit of specialist knowledge to help you navigate the friendship properly.”
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