 Should you do EMDR, eye movement, desensitization, reprocessing therapy, a really well-recognized therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder? And you're probably watching this video because someone has recommended it to you. You are thinking you might embark on this kind of therapy. You may be undecided, you don't know. Right, off from the off, I have to be honest, I can't actually tell you the answer to this, but what I can do is help you to ask some of the right questions of yourself to decide whether or not EMDR might be a good therapy for you. So I come at this as someone who has experienced EMDR as a patient rather than in my professional capacity. So yes, I do lots of professional work around mental health, but in this video, I'm talking to you just as another human being who's gone through the process who had all the same questions that you do, and maybe might be able to help you with your thinking, perhaps, I hope. Okay, so I'm gonna give you five questions to think about. Number one is, do you actually want things to change? So this is kind of true before you embark on any kind of therapy really, but if you commit to doing EMDR, then it's really a commitment to I don't want my life to continue in exactly the way it's going right now. There are things about my life that I would like to change, and I'm prepared to do something about that. I want things to be different. So that's the first question. If actually you're quite happy with how things are right now, maybe other people think things to change, but you don't want things to change, then that's gonna make this a really hard process to engage with, because it's pretty hard. So if you don't want things to change, then this might not be the right thing for you right now. And certainly that's something that would have been true for me historically. I wasn't ready yet. And the point at which I was ready and I wanted things to change felt like the right moment to embark on this. So do you want things to change? Simple question. Number two, are you prepared to work really hard? Because there's no point sugarcoating this. EMDR is tough. Like all therapy is pretty hard and often it can feel like the harder you work. Like the more you put in, the more you get out kind of thing. But it is incredibly hard work. And I think for me and for other people I've spoken to who've been through EMDR, then it can be like especially hard work towards the beginning. When you're kind of finding a way with it and you're beginning to kind of tap into stuff that you perhaps hadn't really allowed yourself to explore before. So yeah, are you prepared to work hard? Because this isn't going to be easy. It's not like you're just going to rock up each week and this is going to fix itself. Like this is going to take quite a lot of input from you both in the therapy room, but also around it in terms of keeping yourself safe and that kind of thing too. So that takes us onto then number three, which is in my opinion, before you embark on EMDR, you need to think really carefully about whether you've got existing, really good coping strategies. Because this is going to churn up stuff for you. It's not going to be like the easiest few weeks. And this is a point when you would be more vulnerable than normal. So again, in my experience, EMDR was something that I did when I was at a point of relative strength. So my anorexia had got to a point where it was under control. I was at a healthy weight. I wasn't currently self-harming. And I was doing okay. And it was only then that I was able to embark on the EMDR. And during that process, I was at a really high risk of relapsing with those other issues. And so it was really important that I was able to draw on all of my healthy coping skills. So I'd been really fortunate and I had previously done dialectical behavior therapy. That's one for another day. But it's basically a skills-based therapy. So you learn all sorts of different things about how to manage distress and some of those skills and other skills that you might have learned in other therapies or just learned through life are really helpful things to kind of look back on. And a helpful thing that you might do, like ahead of embarking on this therapy is actually thinking through what would I do in crisis moments? What would I do on really difficult days? What are the things that helped me to manage? Because on the hard days, it can be really hard to think that stuff through. But if you kind of pre-planned it and you know, right, this is what I do in these moments, then you've got it there ready to go and you can follow that plan. So do you have good coping strategies? Can you make a bit of a plan for what you would do, how you would manage if things were a bit tricky? Then number four, again, kind of, these all kind of lead on from each other. Number four is do you think you'll be able to keep yourself safe? And that's either that you have good strategies for yourself, you've got good planning in place. It might be that you've got good people around you. But again, it's about remembering that you're going to be more vulnerable in these moments. So for me, when I went through EMDR, then I had a period of feeling really intensely suicidal. And so we had really, really clear safety plans in place. And you can, I will link in the description below to stayingsafe.org, where you can really easily create a safety plan if you're someone who struggles with thoughts and feelings around suicide. Now again, I don't want this to put people off because for me, this was brief. It was really intense, it was really difficult. I was dealing with trauma that had been there for a really long time at the end of the day. And so it was tough in the short term, but it was weeks and then things were dramatically better and continued to be dramatically better. So can you keep yourself safe in the short term? And if not, what steps could you take to ensure that you've got a good safety plan in place? Other people you can talk to, places you can go. Even doing things like making sure you've got like the Samaritans or whatever the equivalent in your country is, save you on your phone so that you've always got someone that you can talk to at moments of crisis can be really, really helpful steps here. And then finally, number five, the last question you could ask yourself is what's the worst that could happen? And I don't mean that like, oh, what's the worst that could happen? Get on with it. I mean, literally, what's the worst thing that could happen as a result of doing EMDR? And is that a problem for you? So for me, at the point in which I decided to go with EMDR, it was literally, I tried everything. I was, you know, I kind of gone through my various therapies. I kind of got on top of my eating disorder and self-harm to some extent, but actually I was kind of standing still in my life and my life was still really quite controlled by past trauma. And I needed to be able to move on from that if I was ever gonna fully recover from the other issues. And so for me, when I kind of thought, well, what's the worst that could happen from, you know, put in my life on hold for a few weeks and really engaging with this therapy, it was totally kind of worth it, if that makes sense. And yeah, I had to think really carefully about safety planning. And yeah, it was a tricky few weeks, but it really helped me to get my life back. So that was good. The thing is, you know, EMDR is loads of people find it really helpful, but I'm sure there are people that don't. And it's the same with any kind of therapy. It's as much about like your relationship with the therapist and building that up, you're, you know, being ready to change. You're being at the right point in your life. It's all other things that will kind of interact with it. So you don't feel like this is gonna be a magic bullet. However, what I would also say is sometimes people have commented on my videos in the past about EMDR and they've said, well, I'm really cynical about whether this will work. Is that gonna stop it working? And I don't think that is gonna stop it working. I went into EMDR super, super cynical. And actually for me, it was an incredibly effective therapy. So yeah, it, what else to say? Basically, should you do EMDR? I can't tell you the answer. Think through these questions. Do you want things to change? You prepare to work hard? Do you have good coping strategies in place? Are you able to keep yourself safe? And what's the worst that can happen? Really good starting point for thinking this through. And if you're not sure, take these questions or questions like it to your therapist and discuss it with them before you commence. You are somewhat in control of this process. It is gonna be done with you, not to you. So try and take some control of that dialogue and feel like you're really ready so that when or if you decide to go with it, you can really kind of give it your all. Good luck, whatever decision you make. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments below. What other things do you think you need to think about before commencing on this or any other kind of therapy? Hope it's helpful and see you next time. Bye.