EMDR Trauma Retreat: Day 6

I was able to chat with a friend about how the retreat has been going and she was able to share some other things that helped me. I'll share a video she suggested at the end along with a video that was quazi-homework that spoke to me, especially after watching the first video. 

I slept fitfully, but that was mostly to be expected. Thankfully I didn't have a headache for the first part of the morning, so that was a bonus. We talked through what I hoped to achieve today and I eventually settled on the theme that I wanted to know that it wasn't my fault. Now - logically I know that none of this is my fault. But irrationally and deep down, I feel like I should have been in the car or at least I should have somehow been involved in what happened that day - not just forced to watch as it all happened. So we dove in. 

I was able to process for around 3 hours with little breaks thrown in there and some grounding exercises as well. We broke for lunch and a headache settled in. I tried to take a small nap but that didn't do the trick today. 

We worked on some other boards instead of trying to process more EMDR. We worked on addiction and boundaries boards. The addiction board defined different types of potential addictions or negative coping skills that some people sometimes use. Yep - I found several of mine on there. We talked through the addiction cycle and how to try to break it. We also talked through boundaries using a similar type diagram as shown below and identified who would be allowed to enter which ring and what my requirements for entrance are for each level. 

I came back to my room for a proper nap and to finally do laundry. I'll probably wander nearby and find something for dinner. I ordered gyros last night. Yum!

Here is a video about IFS (Internal Family Systems) called The Power of Self to Heal Our Parts | Richard Schwartz, Soren Gordhamer | Wisdom 2.0 2017.

Here is a video from Brené Brown called Listening to shame. Give it a listen. Until tomorrow!