I have tried it and found it an extremely painful process... I only did it nice because of the ramifications... Extremely sore eyes for days after and intensified the speed at which I was remembering my repressed memories... For the trauma I worked on I felt like I was numb to the emotions I used to have but in only a few months the emotions came back and where/are just as painful as before... I honestly hated this experience. I currently see a counselor who is trained in emdr and was refered to her so that I could get more emdr treatments but in the 1.5 years I've been with her she has not suggested we do this... We did talk about it recently and she felt this was not a good therapy for me... Instead she said that dialectical behavioral therapy was best for my level of trauma and PTSD...
I know that everyone is different and that I suffer with complex PTSD from a childhood filled with trauma and sexual abuse perpetrated by my own father... So I could just be the exception to the rule here... But I can not in any way reccome do this treatment...!!! It was horrible...!!!

But that's just me... Sorry to give you a conflicting review... I don't want to
Confuse you... But I have to be honest... This was so painful and ultimately did nothing positive for me...!!!!

My son (molested by his father for years, unbeknownst to me) and I have used it (separately) and had amazingly good results. He was age 19 when he disclosed, 20-21 when he did EMDR. I also have a history of CSA and other trauma, besides the trauma of the betrayal of my husband abusing and terrorizing our son. We did not use eye movements but did EMDR with bilateral stimulation of holding a small device in each hand that vibrates in turn. There are options of eye movement, visually following lights, or auditory stimulation with headphones as well. The point is to have both sides of the brain engaged by turns while processing the information. Our therapists were very experienced in EMDR and started by assessing our physical and emotional conditions and histories, our ability to self-soothe, and our level of outside support, among other things. We began EMDR with less difficult memories (not related to SA) and progressed to SA. It helped to get familiar with the EMDR process and see the results with "easy" stuff to go forward with the trauma of CSA. We had control at all times and could stop if it became overwhelming. It was intense at times, but the therapist helped control the speed and slowed it down or lessened the intensity if necessary. It speeded up our healing immensely, and the results have lasted for almost 3 years now. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to do this type of healing and would do it again (as would my son) if needed.

I have a family member in the mental health field who is certified in EMDR, and she has found it to be enormously helpful for her own issues, and is glad to be able to offer it in her practice. When I described to her the way my daughter's therapist had performed EMDR with her, my family member was appalled, and said that it absolutely does not need to, and in fact should NOT, focus on painful memories. Just learning how to apply it to mildly unpleasant thoughts is enough to transfer the process to thoughts about trauma. So, it may very well depend on whom one chooses to perform EMDR therapy.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can be very, very helpful, and, in fact, provides sort of a template for dealing with all obstacles, fears, anxiety, etc.

I would guess that a little DBT combined with a little well-practiced EMDR would go a long way toward giving a survivor tools to keep going.

Very best wishes for successful healing to you all.

I liked it and I think as long as you have a very skilled and trained person doing it it is worth giving it a try. There is another one also that goes a little deeper can't think of what it is called but seems to help also in trauma even better than just the emdr. If I think of it I'll post it here. It is nice that there is help like this out there.

My one son at age 20 had 5 sessions of EMDR in 3 1/2 weeks (we found out about it from the VCCO who referred him to a reputable therapist who participated with them, and he was going back to college so the therapist did as much as he could handle in that period of time), along with some training on self soothing, by a highly trained and very experienced therapist. He did experience some of the more severe impact painful memories hitting him out of the blue after the first session, but not after the second. The therapy needed to be repeated for 3 sessions about 10 months later, and he's been able to deal with any painful memories on his own since, and they are much less often and the severity is quite diminished. He graduated and is a teacher, doing well. My heart goes out to you, I hope and pray you and your precious kids can heal and thrive from this.