Page 116 - Post-traumatic stress disorder in adults with mild intellectual disability: Screening, assessment, and brief intensive EMDR therapy

Chapter 5
Participant three already received EMDR therapy three times and, therefore,
had a fairly clear idea of how an EMDR therapy session would proceed. The
first two times, the therapy was successful. The last time he felt it did not
have the right effect, although he could not explain why it did not work at
that time. He hoped to use EMDR therapy to finally process his traumatic
memory.
Participant three (before therapy): “I expect EMDR to help me,
at least to the extent that I will be able to control my aggression
better... Because what often happens is that I physically attack
my professional caregiver, so I really squeeze or scratch or bite
or hit or kick... I am just still very afraid that if I continue with
that kind of behaviour, the home will no longer be my place...
I am afraid of closed institutions, such as crisis centers, partly
because my mother warned me about them.”
Participant three hoped that EMDR therapy would help him better control
his aggression. He was worried that if he did not become less aggressive, he
would be forced to leave the supported housing where he lived and would
be placed in a closed institution, such as a crisis centre. He hoped that
the therapy would help him change his behaviour, enabling him to continue
living in his current home.
Therapist three (after therapy): “If you look at participant three,
for example, who actually had a very nice process, who came
and noticed quite quickly that he already had marked traumatic
memories on his list [for successfully treated traumas]... So he
noticed quite quickly that he was making good progress through
the list... Yes, that is of course super motivating.’
Participant three (after therapy): “That I was yawning a lot
during the therapy treatment and every therapist told me: this is
because you are working on it, so it’s very normal, everyone has
that during EMDR therapy, they said.”
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