Posted by lucie lu on February 20, 2009, at 13:35:20
In reply to Q about appropriate t questions (possibly trigger), posted by petunia on February 19, 2009, at 18:51:51
Welcome, Petunia. I'm glad you decided to post.
If I understood you correctly, this is just a more or less temporary, consultant relationship? I really don't know much about EMDR and have no personal experience with it. Is it supposed to work well with complex PTSD? As you probably know, there is a lot of difference in treatment protocols for complex vs simple PTSD. Whereas standard treatment for simple PTSD emphasizes abreaction, or revisiting the trauma event in detail and with its original emotional intensity, this approach would overwhelm and retraumatize the person with complex PTSD. So I don't know where EMDR fits into this. But your response to this interview sounds to me as if it felt retraumatizing to you. If you shut down your feelings as a means of coping with internal distress connected with a traumatic history, then it is not at all surprising that you would do the same during the interview as well.
I really hesitate to say anything against this man's technique because I know so little about EMDR. But I have to tell you that personally, I would have been unable to tolerate that interview and would have found it necessary to leave. I would have felt retraumatized and violated by the intrusiveness and insensitivity of his questioning. At the very least, his lack of responsiveness to my feelings would have felt like a violation of my boundaries. Hardly helpful for anyone with a trauma history.
I do hear you that sometimes the options are limited, and you may have to make compromises. And I agree with the others that if you do decide to go back, you talk to him firmly and up front and tell him how violated you felt during the the interview. He may not have realized that, especially if you had shut down. Perhaps the way to do this is to question him on the technical aspects of treatment for complex PTSD, including initial interviews, and how EMDR is used to treat it. Don't forget to ask about potential risks, side effects, etc just as you would any medical treatment. It is one thing to give him the benefit of the doubt, i.e. forgiving some technical clumsiness and insensitivity, if you feel he is on the right track therapeutically, you both have an open line of communication, and are both on the same page. But it is quite another to risk being retraumatized by someone without the appropriate experience to treat your condition. Frankly, if it were me, I would only go back if there were zero other options, but that's just me. I would not have dealt with this as well as you seem to have.
Good luck, and take care, Petunia. I hope all goes well. Keep us posted.
Lucie
poster:lucie lu
thread:881155
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090214/msgs/881325.html