Transcript
(quiet minor key music)
- [Rodriguez] Before I
started EMDR
I really didn't know what
it was about and
how it works.
The goal was to be able to
recall the traumatic event
without getting
anxious, or nervous,
or short of breath, or
any of those feelings
when you bring that
thought up.
(quiet keyboard music)
The way EMDR was explained
by my therapist
kind of went like this:
Think of your head as
an office file cabinet.
What we're going to do is
kind of rearrange
the folders
and put those
memories in a folder
that won't be
to the forefront
of the file cabinet.
It'll still be there, but
it won't consume
everything that's going
on day to day.
The first step was
making me familiar
with the equipment that
we were going to use.
Hand tappers - they look
like little hand
stress balls,
but those little hand
stress balls vibrate,
and they vibrate at a
certain speed,
at a certain intensity,
and they alternate left
to right, right to left.
You focus on a
traumatic memory,
and after a certain
amount of time
you bring up a
pleasant memory.
And there is a
process in the brain
that puts that memory back
to where it's
supposed to be.
I thought about it,
and I thought,
"At therapy nobody will
shoot at you.
"At therapy you're not
living in the middle
"of the desert
"in the summertime, at
128 degrees."
And I thought, "I'm willing
to try anything
"to feel better,
"so let's do it."
It's work; you have to
trust your therapist.
You have to trust yourself
to work through
traumatic thoughts.
Did I feel I was ready for
therapy when I started?
Yes.
(quiet piano music)