[Abraxis]

Vin mentions EMDR, a therapeutic technique often used to treat PTSD, on Dating Diablo. I did a little research on the various means employed by this method. It usually begins with some kind of mental or physical picture that represents the trauma and stimulus of various kinds (usually either auditory or kinesthetic) is employed to engage both sides of the brain while the therapist has the patient track a moving object with their eyes. The idea is to activate different parts of the brain while focusing on the trauma so that every aspect of it may be dealt with at once. I realized that many of the same things occur when you do Magnus’ “Inner Game Tapping.” I’ve dabbled with that a little and did see a decrease in approach anxiety, but wondered if that was just placebo. Now I’m not so sure. I’m going to try more tapping and see what I can achieve with it, since approach anxiety can still be an issue for me. Are the parallels in these techniques just superficial, or is inner game tapping actually a sort of poor-man’s EMDR? Thoughts?

-Will