Theraputic

Last night was happy. Happy and sad. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be reliving the delivery moment by moment. I cried a lot, but it was wonderful to say it and put it out there. We went over a brief history of my family, physical history, and then I told her how it (the delivery) happened. She agreed that she strongly feels I have post traumatic stress disorder and thinks that she'll be able to teach me coping strategies and "change my point of view" on the delivery. She was very kind and really listened to me.

The therapist specializes in a particular method of treating PTSD called EMDR. From the website:

"Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)1 is a comprehensive, integrative psychotherapy approach. It contains elements of many effective psychotherapies in structured protocols that are designed to maximize treatment effects. These include psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centered therapies2.

EMDR is an information processing therapy and uses an eight phase approach to address the experiential contributors of a wide range of pathologies. It attends to the past experiences that have set the groundwork for pathology, the current situations that trigger dysfunctional emotions, beliefs and sensations, and the positive experience needed to enhance future adaptive behaviors and mental health.

During treatment various procedures and protocols are used to address the entire clinical picture. One of the procedural elements is "dual stimulation" using either bilateral eye movements, tones or taps. During the reprocessing phases the client attends momentarily to past memories, present triggers, or anticipated future experiences while simultaneously focusing on a set of external stimulus. During that time, clients generally experience the emergence of insight, changes in memories, or new associations. The clinician assists the client to focus on appropriate material before initiation of each subsequent set."

I find this to be extremely interesting and she said this process would be used further down the road of treatment. Overall I left feeling like a big weight had been lifted from me. It was almost the relaxation your body feels after a really good massage. Our next session is on Monday.