ABSTRACT
Jane was a thirty-five-year-old Dutch woman with a background of drug abuse and chaotic relationships involving violence from men. For a brief period her three young children had been taken into care, but were now living with her again. She had managed to establish a more settled way of life, free of drugs, but was still troubled by traumatic events of the past during the time when she lived in a crime-ridden area of Amsterdam. She felt fearful much of the time, and showed continuing symptoms of PTSD. Her childhood had involved some sexual abuse by her brother. She had felt close to her mother, but perceived her as needy and neglectful. Her relationship with her father had been distant, and her parents had separated when she was aged fifteen. Jane had undergone counselling previously, with some benefit. We agreed to proceed with a few sessions of EMDR, focused initially on the sexual abuse by her brother.
