I use EMDR selectivly. In my experience, EMDR can be very powerful and helpful. Last week, for example, I did an EMDR session with a young man who was abused by 6 or 7 perpetrators. Some of the abuse was before he was able to have lasting memories. Other abusers had been pretty much resolved (in his estimation) by the talking about them (using CBT).
In one perpetration, he was having nightmares about abuse from a teenaged acquaintance who molested him when he was about 11. The EMDR was done with chopsticks. No touch directly.
EMDR can be done with eye movement (no touch) or touch (tapping on palms with fingers or chopsticks), or by sounds. I've never done the sounds. The principle is to alternatively stimulate the brain hemispheres with alternating movement or sounds or touch while the person talks about the traumatic "snapshot".
How and why it works is somewhat unknown. However, the research on the technique is quite extensive. You can Google the technique and get lots of literature about how it is effective. Strange as it sounds, it works. Police departments, the Veterans Administration, FBI and others use it extensively.
The young man, a week later, reported that he no longer had nightmares. As the session wound down (about 10-30 minutes to discuss the points that need to be covered, about 20-30 minutes during the actual process), he broke into laughter, stating that the scariness of his abuser and the abuse itself had gone from a 9 (on a 1-10 scale of neutral to "worst experience imaginable") to a 0. At this point, he does not have the emotional reaction to the abuse (even though he recalls all the details of the abuse) that he had previously.)
It is certainly worthwhile to research the process and talk to the practitioner about using a "no touch" procedure if you are uncomfortable about touch. Any experienced practitioner can use the eye movements (which can be somewhat tiring for both the client and the practitioner) or using chopsticks or some other non-direct contact, or sounds (if they choose to use a sound headphones or snapping fingers).
It can be truly amazing to reduce the impact of the trauma.
Ken
