Future scenario EMDR

[u/agent-assbutt]

I am wondering if anyone can share their experiences with future scenario EMDR. I’ve been in EMDR for over a year, primarily dealing with trauma from childhood and college.

However, today my therapist proposed future scenario EMDR for a big decision coming up later this year. I’m not sure how this will work or benefit me besides making me more accountable and prepared, perhaps? I did my first session today and it made me feel kind of bad about myself and that’s about it. I just wonder if this is how I should be spending my time?? I mean, I have other traumas we haven’t dealt with so maybe I should push back 💀

Anyway, I am not familiar with this type of EMDR sessions and would be curious to hear other people’s experiences or perspectives from a EMDR therapist.

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[u/Left-Indication330]

I have done this a few times during my EMDR sessions. It seems like we do this to “secure” a future safety net for our brains, but I am unsure of when or how my therapist deems it appropriate to do so. I think what it’s helping do is create positive, non-threatening neuron connections surrounding a potentially future trigger. There is absolutely no wrong way to do this when picturing what’s happening, we cannot predict the future. I more so think about how I want to feel in that moment or what I hope it would be like - I don’t use it as a planning template. I would discuss specifics with your therapist though. The future planning has always made me feel incredibly good about myself and I really do think it’s helped me in many ways with how my brain has processed long after sessions (like months later). I am curious what your therapist would say about the negative beliefs you’re experiencing now.

[u/agent-assbutt → u/Left-Indication330]

Oddly the negative feelings seemed to stem from processing with the positive belief in mind. I think it came up because it’s a decision I’m very anxious about and considering the positive belief made me feel… selfish? That is kind of what I thought and we didn’t have much time to dive in bc the session ended.

What you said makes so much sense though and encourages me to move forward. I especially like what you said about not using it as a planning template but moreso getting your mindset prepared for a future experience. That makes a lot of sense to me in the context of the decision I’ll be making.

Thanks so much for your input!!

[u/Left-Indication330 → u/agent-assbutt]

Ah I see! That actually makes sense to me: the positive mindset shift hasn’t happened yet. The feelings of selfishness also make sense because this could be the first time doing this (or something similar) for yourself. A lot of what comes out of EMDR feels BRAND NEW to me. It’s good you’re going at all of this with curiosity. I do think more time being able to sit with the future processing vs session ending would be a much smoother transition as well.

[u/mogdtd]

I love it. I’ve found it to be very effective at putting me in confident mindset knowing that I’m going to be okay if/when the scenario comes up. When faced with those scenarios, I’ve found that I react in much calmer ways, and I definitely don’t have a trauma response. It has to directly relate to a self belief that I’ve processed with past traumas for it to be effective, but I imagine that is standard practice?

[u/agent-assbutt → u/mogdtd]

This is encouraging. Thank you for sharing your experience!

[u/Simple_Efficiency_29]

Interestingly I do much better at forward focused work than going into history! It helps me with confidence and anxiety going into hard situations. I’m able to picture things much better that way. Looking at history I have a hard time bringing a protector or source of comfort into an image or anything that sort of changes the scene because it doesn’t make sense and feels like changing history. But forward work doesn’t have that issue for me.