Comprehensive EMDR Session Debrief
Kelly O'Horo, EMDR Facilitator and Approved Consultant and Founder of Infinite Healing and Wellness, and Jaime Castillo, EMDR Approved Consultant in Training, Founder of Find Your Shine Therapy, discuss the Comprehensive EMDR Therapy Session demonstrated in their first video.
Jaime describes her experience as the client regarding EMDR 2.0 strategies used. Kelly describes her experience as the therapist in this session. The purpose of this video is to share for both clients and therapists how an EMDR Therapy session might be experienced from both perspectives.
Kelly O'Horo:
Hi there. I'm Kelly O'Horo. I'm the founder of Infinite Healing and Wellness. I am an EMDR facilitator, approved consultant, and certified EMDR therapist. I'm also a Daring Way facilitator for Brene Brown's research and content. And I'm sitting here with Jamie Castillo.
Jaime Castillo:
Hi there, I'm Jamie, and I'm the founder and clinical director of Find Your Shine Therapy in Tempe. I'm also an EMDR certified therapist, and an approved consultant in training. And Kelly and I are here today to debrief our EMDR video that we've recorded.
Kelly O'Horo:
So the purpose of this video is to debrief the EMDR therapy session that Jamie and I recorded, because we want clients who want to pursue EMDR therapy, to have something they can look at and have an experience of, so that they're not going in so cold. It's such a nerve wracking experience anyway, to go to therapy, and EMDR therapy is super different and weird. So we wanted to make sure we have a good illustration of what it should look like, and we could talk a little bit to you about what it also feels like. So we're just going to jump right in.
Jaime Castillo:
Yeah.
Kelly O'Horo:
So Jamie, how was your experience as the client for this EMDR therapy session that we recorded?
Jaime Castillo:
Yeah. So I have to be honest, it was super weird.
Kelly O'Horo:
It really is. It really is.
Jaime Castillo:
Yeah. My background is as a therapist, as I mentioned. I have been an EMDR client before, so that wasn't new to me, but this was the first time you and I have worked in this kind of context before.
Kelly O'Horo:
Right. Right.
Jaime Castillo:
I worked on something that's real in my life, and has some real emotion tied to it. It was a great experience, everything. I was totally genuine throughout the entire thing, so everything that you saw was real, and it was pretty vulnerable for me.
Kelly O'Horo:
Yeah.
Jaime Castillo:
Especially, it brings up a lot of painful stuff, and experiencing that with somebody else in the room can feel vulnerable, but also, being filmed and knowing that others are going to see it, feels a little bit vulnerable, as well.
Kelly O'Horo:
Right. We're all our own greatest critics, all people are so critical of themselves, and coming at this from a professional lens typically, to see that kind of vulnerability that you showed us, I just thought it was so incredibly brave, and so awesome of you to do that, because there's just not a lot of good videos out there that really show the truth about what it looks like. I just really commend you. Our clients are going to see this, and it's really brave to get in the arena like that. I can't, come on, she's awesome. It's just really awesome.
Kelly O'Horo:
As a therapist, I found that I'm so much more natural in the flow when I'm with a client. But again, with that video component, as we re-watched, we both were like, "Oh my gosh, I did this wrong, and I said that wrong." It definitely, I think, is an interesting lens to look at, this really authentic, natural experience, but with that learning lens, and that maybe critical eye I looked at my position as a critical position, like here's where I could have improved.
Kelly O'Horo:
But I just thought you were, I mean, such a... A perfect training video, if it goes well, this is what it should look like.
Jaime Castillo:
Yeah. I really appreciate that. And I have to say Kelly, that while you may have saw things in there that you would've done differently, it really, it brings home the importance of client and therapist attunement.
Kelly O'Horo:
Right.
Jaime Castillo:
Because none of that stuff mattered to me.
Kelly O'Horo:
Okay.
Jaime Castillo:
What mattered the most as the client, was that I could feel you with me.
Kelly O'Horo:
Yeah.
Jaime Castillo:
Right? So I could feel that Kelly was attuned to me. And what I mean by that is, that she was just tuned into me. She was almost feeling what I was feeling a little bit, but in a boundaried way, and just helped me lean into that feeling and feel safe to do that. That's one takeaway that I think is really important for clients as they pursue an EMDR therapist, is finding somebody that they feel comfortable in the room with.
Kelly O'Horo:
Yeah.
Jaime Castillo:
And finding a therapist that can really attune to them, and really make them feel safe to go there.
Kelly O'Horo:
Yeah. We have another video coming your way about that very topic. So stay tuned for kind of how to choose a therapist, because that's another video coming soon.
Kelly O'Horo:
Something I wanted to bring to the attention... For those who had EMDR therapy before, you might have noticed that I did some different things that were not as standard with the standard bilateral stimulation that we see in other videos, and that we see from a lot of therapists, because in the last few years, some new research has come out. We're learning that there's some real benefits to changing the way we do bilateral stimulation to decrease the distress for the client, and help you get through hard stuff faster. But also it's because it's a little bit tricky to keep up with the things that I asked you to do, it's less emotionally dysregulating, while not really compromising the processing itself, and the completion of the processing. So can you talk a little bit about what that was like for you?
Jaime Castillo:
Yeah, for sure. So I noticed that I was experiencing the memory, and experiencing the emotions, which were really intense, really sharp. And at the same time, doing things, like naming things in the ocean, for example. That really helps. It feels really a lot like dipping in and dipping out.
Kelly O'Horo:
Right.
Jaime Castillo:
Right? Because I don't think that we are very good at truly doing two things at once, and having our attention in two places at once. So it feels a little bit like toggling, so.
Kelly O'Horo:
Yeah.