Childhood sexual abuse is by far one of the most painful and challenging life experiences any human being may need to overcome. If this has happened to you, I want to encourage you that we will only initiate EMDR treatment for this when you tell me you are ready. Often it takes time for a client to build up trust and confidence in the therapeutic process before they feel they can think about what occurred. In the meantime, there are a number of gentle yet powerful other exercises we can do that use the same bilateral stimulation used in traditional EMDR trauma work but with the goal of simply helping you first feel stronger and better about yourself. Anyone can benefit from these kinds of exercises and most people even find them fun and creative!
Another advantage of using EMDR therapy to heal from childhood sexual trauma is that you do not even have to disclose in detail exactly what took place. So long as you are able to recall it and think about it yourself, just for the purposes of an EMDR trauma processing session, it will resolve. And if by any chance you have blocked much of it out of you conscious mind, don't worry because if you are able to answer the question "Well, what do you think may have taken place?" or "What is the worst you think could have happened?" you will still get the healing regardless of the exact details. Once processing is complete, whatever you went through will no longer be disturbing to you and you will be able to say something like, "That is all in the past. I am over it now."
