# rapid eye movement therapy



## wane (Jun 9, 2010)

hi im waine. I developed social anxiety when my grandad died when i was 8. Im 23 now. I was wondering whether anyone had ever tried rapid eye movement therapy and whether it helped them at all. As i understand it, you close your eyes and replay in your mind the event that caused your social anxiety to develop. So for example in this case i would visualise seeing my grandad just lying there as i did. Andthen you move your eyes quickly from side to side up and down at the same time. This is how i understand it but it may be wrong. I have tried exposure, cbt and am on medication but just was wondering about this method of treatment.


----------



## britisharrow (Jun 18, 2009)

Hi waine how is it going mate. very sorry to hear about this loss and how it's had this long term affect on you.

on the subject of EMDR yes I have used it and I believe totally in it. however, i am now into something called PSTEC. pstec.org is the site, I think.

Now PSTEC is, and it's totally free to download by the way, it's a mixture of EMDR and other sound techniques aimed at neutralising memories. i can tell you it works.

i think you should try it out on the subject of your grandmother. you will sad over her death but over time using techniques such as this you may see that your grief is replaced with warm memories.


----------



## Pam (Feb 14, 2009)

There is a book about EMDR by Shapiro that would explain it more to you.

I haven't tried EMDR but my boyfriend has. It kind of worked with him, but not completely.

Now he does this tapping thing with a therapist and at home (EFT emotional freedom techniques) which is another form of alternating bilaterally on your physical body and combining this with thoughts, memories, images, new thoughts, etc. This really seems to be having a positive effect. He is trying to separate traumatic events from his childhood and their emotional grip they have on him in the present from what is actually happening in the present. 

These 2 methods seem kind of silly at first, but I guess it helps the brain process things better so that you can be more emotiaonlly balanced now.


----------



## britisharrow (Jun 18, 2009)

Yea EFT is great too. I've heard people call it a scam. Here's a message for them, buy one of the numerous books it for $12 and teach yourself. Or type EFT into youtube and learn it from there. The naysayers will always exist tho. I believe in EMDR, PSTEC, and EFT, mainly because I've used them and secondly cause I can see how their distraction routines scientifically re-process memories (Harvard did a study on EMDR, for example, and found that the process replicates rapid eye movement and in doing so facilitates the healthier processing of past memories).


----------



## ozkr (Dec 2, 2005)

Let's pretend for a moment that all search engines are banned in my country. Could someone explain what all the treatments are, what the letters mean, and how they work?


----------



## facade (Oct 1, 2009)

Thanks for posting that link Britisharrow. I started rapid eye movement therapy and had to change therapist, because of ins. Its very difficult to find trained therapist who know about this or are willing to do this.

Here is to hoping everyone finds it helpfull !


----------



## britisharrow (Jun 18, 2009)

ozkr said:


> Let's pretend for a moment that all search engines are banned in my country. Could someone explain what all the treatments are, what the letters mean, and how they work?


Sure. Well EFT is basically (and you might want to take what you know of conventional treatment and stick it on the shelf for a minute) the idea that you tap on meridian lines whilst thinking of a memory or feeling. It neutralises it.

How does it work? Do these chinese meridian lines really exist? I don't know. That's the honest answer. But the act of distracting your mind through tapping whilst focusing on feelings seems to dislodge painful memories. So that's EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques.

PSTEC is a free audio download which is kind of based on EFT but you listen to it and click through the memories. The free audio comes with instructions. I make a point of repeating that it's free because there _is _a lot of stuff out there that will ask you to pay loads of money - whereas PSTEC is genuine. Whether it works on you or not, it's not costing anything to try it. I bought the enhanced version for $14 cause I liked it.

EMDR is being used by the british national health service and it has also been reviewed by Harvard, so it does have some western backing.

At the end of the day, techniques like tapping on yourself sound ludicrous. But if it's not costing you anything, and you do it in the privacy of your own home, who cares, give it a go.

I'll try anything to beat this. In summary, try out PSTEC. I like it, and the support forum is very helpful.

What have we got to lose other than the chains that bind us?


----------



## ozkr (Dec 2, 2005)

Thanks for the reply and the explanation. EMDR sounds interesting, is it something you can try by yourself or is does it require a therapist?


----------



## britisharrow (Jun 18, 2009)

EMDR does because it uses a machine. The others are free to learn.

I've seen such a machine in person in a therapist's office:









They ask you to focus on the problem, and then keep focused on the problem whilst you follow the lights moving rapidly back and forth across the screen.

You know how people look UP AND RIGHT when they're accessing a pictorial memory, or to the LEFT when they're accessing audio memory. It's eye accessing cues, totally part of contemporary psychology. It turns out we use our eyes to process memories, usually during sleep (REM), so this machine basically does the REM memory processing job whilst you're awake.

But I ended up not using it cause I was missing appointments and wasn't interested in getting help at that point. I'm now very interested in PSTEC.


----------

