Sandra Bullock has spoken about having EMDR therapy to help her with extreme anxiety following a series of stressful events: she was bitten by a poisonous spider, her son suffered from a grand mal seizure, and a fixated fan broke into her home. The stress and PTSD also caused her to suffer from alopecia.
Sandra was interviewed on the US programme Red Table Talk (00:20:08 into podcast) , and there was further coverage in the Daily Mail, Instyle Magazine, Access Online, Page Six , Entertainment Tonight, Insider, Self magazine, and YahooNews.
As she processed the trauma of the house break-in with EMDR, which she said was “the most healing therapy”, Sandra also found that past traumas, and behaviours came up which she needed to address. During the bilateral stimulation stage of EMDR, she held paddles which tapped each hand alternately whilst she recalled the break-in in great detail.
I realised I have surrounded myself often with unsafe people and situations and put myself there because that was the most familiar feeling
She told Jada Pinkett Smith and the other presenters of Red Table Talk: “I was in the closet and I heard banging on the door and he [the therapist] said ‘ok hold that feeling’. After about two hours-worth I realised I had gone on this entire journey inside my house but all of a sudden it went to unsafe relationships, unsafe childhood moments […]. I realised I have surrounded myself often with unsafe people and situations and put myself there because that was the most familiar feeling I had […]. In that EMDR journey I had to take ownership of everything that I brought into my world because it felt comfortable and realise it no longer had a place.”
Other famous people to share that they have had EMDR include Prince Harry, who was filmed during a therapy session for the Apple TV series The Me You Can’t See, Kate Garraway and Paris Jackson