Treating Endometriosis Pain with EMDR

Healing our stories can lessen our pain

Photo by the author.

Content Warning: the following includes descriptions of physical and emotional pain. Readers are advised not to use any of the techniques in this article without the guidance of a trained mental health professional. This article is not medical advice. If you are in pain, speak with your doctor. Client details have been changed to protect anonymity.

“You are on the bathroom floor. You are covered in sweat. You feel both as if you are running a fever and as if you are standing outside in twelve-degree weather without a coat on. Your body is shaking. You have just finished throwing up in your toilet but can’t find the strength to lift your hand to your mouth to wipe the residue off your lips. Your head hurts from hitting it on the floor after you collapsed backward once your body was done forcing the pure stomach acid — because you haven’t eaten in hours — out of your system. The floor is uncomfortable, and it’s as if you can feel the hardness in every part of your body. But you prefer the uncomfortable feeling of the floor digging into your spine over the searing pain you feel in your abdomen…. You can feel your heart racing; you’re starting to panic. The pain is bad, it’s really bad, and if history counts for anything, you know it’s not going to get better anytime soon. It feels as if your…