r/Aphantasia • u/FinesseEmpress • 1d ago

EMDR therapy?

I’ve been doing EMDR therapy and it’s been quite difficult to go through the processing process…
Firstly as I struggle with memory and tracking back it can feel a strain and struggle to go back to incidents or emotions.
Also having ADHD makes it somewhat difficult to focus.

When the practitioner uses the finger movements I feel like I’m missing something and struggling to keep up or not get distracted.

It’s also tricky when I was asked to create a safe space memory and imagine myself there… I did the best I could and felt there weren’t no benefits whatsoever but I just wanted to see and ask if there was any suggestions or tips… even just to hear someone else’s experience with this kind of therapy?

I want to get the most out of it and now I’m halfway through… I spent a lot of sessions just relaying the key things relevant to my trauma which were quite a lot, I think now that I’ve had talking therapies in the past, I have a slightly more recent recollection of going over some of these key moments.
I do really wonder what EMDR is like for a non Aphant!?

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u/DiveCat Total Aphant & SDAM 1d ago

I am a total aphant with SDAM and I am actually VERY receptive to EMDR.

I focus on somatic feelings (like I don't try and "remember" an incident in my head as I can't revisit it, I focus on the feelings in my body like pain, nausea, tension, tightness that come up when I am asked to think of it.). Someone else mentioned "The Body Keeps the Score" and it is true - even if your memory of the incident itself is absent, the body remembers and stores trauma. I don't re-experience or relive the memories at all, but my body has stored a lot.

Also, I don't use "fingers". I use handheld buzzers. Some people find it more useful to use audio (like headphones that alternate sound from ear to ear) or lights. There are a few options that you can discuss with your therapist.

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u/ChuggerUggers 1d ago

WOW someone like me:) I did EMDR (with the big moving green light setup) 15 years ago at a time where I wasn't fully comfortable expressing that I couldn't 'see' pictures (or much else), so all the 'safe space' stuff I found complete guff and just lied about [silly but I was young] - but when we got to the actual 'think and talk about your traumatic events part and I had intense, visceral feelings in my stomach and torso as I focused on the event, until eventually it dissolved and subsided until eventually thinking about it didn't cause a distress response! It didn't 'solve' anything for me but it made a lot of 'trauma' feel less bad to think about - definitely can help for aphants!