Oh my gosh!! I never thought of this before. I did EMDR ages ago, and I could never get the eye movements to work for me. Instead my therapist did tapping. We tried the eye movements a couple of times, but it never lasted longer than a couple of seconds-- it got us nowhere. It never occurred to me that aphantasia may be the reason eye movements did nothing for me. To answer your question, tapping did end up working for me. I know there are a lot of modalities that can be used to implement EMDR, so I would say talking with your therapist and being open minded is the best bet. I don't know that a DIY approach is going to work out for you, since without the visualization, I'm unsure how effective attempts of EMDR will be. Overall though, EMDR gave me my life back. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to attend college, hold a fulltime job, or really function at any capacity. I would without a doubt have to be on some form of government disability. The processing did work, but it was more like following a narrative or vibe of thoughts than an image.

Hi everyone, I'm Blake. I'm turning 25 in a few days and work in biopharmaceuticals, although I'm working my tail off (currently to no avail) to enter the world of biomedical research. I learned I have aphantasia today when a coworker who learned they had it over the weekend was telling me about it because they thought I would find it interesting. I always thought that was the default. I grew up surrounded by art and art theory, so the closest I get to visualization is planning how I would draw/paint what is being described to me. This whole time, people have been seeing movies and photos in their brain while seeing something else with their eyes, it makes absolutely no sense to me. We only have one set of eyes-- how can you possibly "see" two things at once, at the same time, and hold both images in your mind? I can't understand how anyone can visualize literally any sensation they aren't actively experiencing. I have a really large immediate family, and asked all of my siblings hoping at least one of them shared the experience. It turns out it's just me. Anyways, it's nice to see there's an online community so I don't have to mentally spiral on my own :)

Oh my gosh!! I never thought of this before. I did EMDR ages ago, and I could never get the eye movements to work for me. Instead my therapist did tapping. We tried the eye movements a couple of times, but it never lasted longer than a couple of seconds-- it got us nowhere. It never occurred to me that aphantasia may be the reason eye movements did nothing for me. To answer your question, tapping did end up working for me. I know there are a lot of modalities that can be used to implement EMDR, so I would say talking with your therapist and being open minded is the best bet. I don't know that a DIY approach is going to work out for you, since without the visualization, I'm unsure how effective attempts of EMDR will be. Overall though, EMDR gave me my life back. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to attend college, hold a fulltime job, or really function at any capacity. I would without a doubt have to be on some form of government disability. The processing did work, but it was more like following a narrative or vibe of thoughts than an image.

Hi everyone, I'm Blake. I'm turning 25 in a few days and work in biopharmaceuticals, although I'm working my tail off (currently to no avail) to enter the world of biomedical research. I learned I have aphantasia today when a coworker who learned they had it over the weekend was telling me about it because they thought I would find it interesting. I always thought that was the default. I grew up surrounded by art and art theory, so the closest I get to visualization is planning how I would draw/paint what is being described to me. This whole time, people have been seeing movies and photos in their brain while seeing something else with their eyes, it makes absolutely no sense to me. We only have one set of eyes-- how can you possibly "see" two things at once, at the same time, and hold both images in your mind? I can't understand how anyone can visualize literally any sensation they aren't actively experiencing. I have a really large immediate family, and asked all of my siblings hoping at least one of them shared the experience. It turns out it's just me. Anyways, it's nice to see there's an online community so I don't have to mentally spiral on my own :)