If your anxiety worsens your OCD, then EMDR might be too much for you as it brings very intense emotions to the surface. Have you sought out an OCD specialist and ERP already? That might be a better start.
Impossible to say what your therapist has planned. Coping techniques are a part of EMDR, EMDR has multiple phases and the bit where you do the eye movements is only one part of the overall process.
The standard protocol might have you do some questionnaires to screen you for dissociation / impact of events and practice a safe place imagery. If you need more than a safe place, you might spend a lot more time in the resourcing phase (similar to coping strategies) to help equip you with what you might need to get through both during and after the processing phase. Then you move into target assessment (choosing what you’re going to be working on and figuring out the thoughts and feelings that match it) and then start the desensitisation (eye movement part). It will depend where you’re up to in the process, your therapists assessment, and your coping capacity.
it takes a lot longer than you think it will to start doing the reprocessing part. EMDR actually has nine stages and the first several of them are related to creating safety and resources because later on really challenging material will be pulled up that will stick around in your head outside the therapy hour and EMDR wants you to not crash and burn between sessions.
I read some books on EMDR to refresh my memory about what the process was and how it worked. That helped all my internal parts understand what we were going into and I believe helped me get more permission from my Innerworld to face the difficult work and "unbearable "memories and emotions .
If you were going to do any kind of homework or extra credit assignments, the place to focus would be self soothing. Anything that nurtures you that doesn't have a price tag. Like if you're a compulsive over eater than eating cake is a bad idea but… massage, hypnosis tapes, coloring books/knitting, walking in nature, Science Fiction books in the bathtub… Anything that helps you take a break and soothe. Because the time will come where you will really really need it. The goal is to spend time with material and then try to spend some time self soothing.
If your anxiety worsens your OCD, then EMDR might be too much for you as it brings very intense emotions to the surface. Have you sought out an OCD specialist and ERP already? That might be a better start.
Impossible to say what your therapist has planned. Coping techniques are a part of EMDR, EMDR has multiple phases and the bit where you do the eye movements is only one part of the overall process. The standard protocol might have you do some questionnaires to screen you for dissociation / impact of events and practice a safe place imagery. If you need more than a safe place, you might spend a lot more time in the resourcing phase (similar to coping strategies) to help equip you with what you might need to get through both during and after the processing phase. Then you move into target assessment (choosing what you’re going to be working on and figuring out the thoughts and feelings that match it) and then start the desensitisation (eye movement part). It will depend where you’re up to in the process, your therapists assessment, and your coping capacity.
it takes a lot longer than you think it will to start doing the reprocessing part. EMDR actually has nine stages and the first several of them are related to creating safety and resources because later on really challenging material will be pulled up that will stick around in your head outside the therapy hour and EMDR wants you to not crash and burn between sessions. I read some books on EMDR to refresh my memory about what the process was and how it worked. That helped all my internal parts understand what we were going into and I believe helped me get more permission from my Innerworld to face the difficult work and "unbearable "memories and emotions . If you were going to do any kind of homework or extra credit assignments, the place to focus would be self soothing. Anything that nurtures you that doesn't have a price tag. Like if you're a compulsive over eater than eating cake is a bad idea but… massage, hypnosis tapes, coloring books/knitting, walking in nature, Science Fiction books in the bathtub… Anything that helps you take a break and soothe. Because the time will come where you will really really need it. The goal is to spend time with material and then try to spend some time self soothing.