Bessel van der Kolk discusses EMDR.m4v 

It was one session with a therapist who combined EMDR with Tapas therapies that stopped the anxiety and depression that I had been suffering from since childhood. There were a number of collateral issues that were "fixed," behaviors that I had written off as "That's just the way I am." I enjoy a new life and new freedoms because of this.

Dr bessel van der kolk, you are truly an amazing person

Great video. As an EMDR certified therapist this is only one of many other methods I commonly use with my trauma survivors, he is right, "it's a skill" not a cure all.

Brilliant

"How that precisely happens, we don't know at this point." That is pretty important to know. There are people who have found EMDR to be quite damaging precisely because of "how it happens." I know I'm not the only one who had a horrible, re-traumatizing EMDR experience. There is a reason our brain encapsulates and protects us from past memories. Breaking through that system in a quick fix type psychological surgery is too drastic and forceful, even with tapping and certain protective measures like the Protector and the therapist's empathic presence. It's still trying to do a quick fix on something that should be handled much more gently. Sure our brain eventually can recover from this psychological surgery, and (cross our fingers and keep faith) will be better off afterwards. But why not employ the brain in a more natural manner? What is the need for such speed? Why rip memories out of where they are stored rather than create a slow, natural evolution and transformation? Modern medicine is all about cutting out tumors, and this is like memory surgery. But we are finding that increasing the health of the terrain naturally heals tumors without surgery. I would bet there is an equivalent means of healing past memories, by slowly over time strengthening all the internal resources of the individual so that at the point they have the strength they naturally allow the memory to arise, and they at that point already have the strength and skills to transform it. Back when lobotomies were performed, they probably did studies that found that people improved after getting a lobotomy. Perhaps they said, "Wow, that procedure is wonderful. My client is feeling so much better now! I have no idea why, but they are really much better off after the procedure!." Yes that's perhaps a more drastic procedure but it just goes to show that - maybe, just maybe, we need to understand the actual mechanism at work rather than just the outcome before endorsing a particular therapeutic tool.

i am a survivor of many traumas and do in fact suffer with Tissue memory pains(TMPs). I do believe I may be of assistance in helping to identify any biomarkers unique to those who suffer with phantom pains related to having been inhumanely raped and tortured as a child. I cannot help but feel so sure that there must be a way of confirming the existence of TMPs/Phantom pains for those who do not have something as obvious as a severed limb. I have discovered that Phantom Pains are primarily ONLY associated with amputees however this in fact is not true.

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I found yoga was too painful emotionally for me.