I haven't been enthralled with Maddie's story line this season, it seemed like they were having to work too hard to make everyone sympathetic and the perpetrator too despicable. (It's also no secret that white people get more police attention, I think they should have made the kidnap victim a person of color.) However, if that's what it took to get this longest-running show to introduce EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming - Therapy, then I'll trumpet it from the rooftops. EMDR was essential to me recovering from a long past trauma - 7/5/85, to be exact - after regular talk therapy with 3 therapists couldn't get me all the way to being able to live in peace. It's a shame that it took so long, but it's in the show's canon now, more power to them for finally introducing it.
If you watch SVU to try to heal something that is in your past (as I did) but it lives in your here and now, please find an EMDR therapist near you, Google "EMDR near me". I don't understand the science behind it, but EMDR helped me, weekly over 3-4 months, remember my incident in a less threatening and violent way. It still comes back to me almost daily, but the re-visualization process took away the shock and jagged edges that would hurt me every single day since it happened. I can still remember it as it happened if necessary, but for day-to-day living it has been literally life-changing. As is SVU <3.
If you watch SVU to try to heal something that is in your past (as I did) but it lives in your here and now, please find an EMDR therapist near you, Google "EMDR near me". I don't understand the science behind it, but EMDR helped me, weekly over 3-4 months, remember my incident in a less threatening and violent way. It still comes back to me almost daily, but the re-visualization process took away the shock and jagged edges that would hurt me every single day since it happened. I can still remember it as it happened if necessary, but for day-to-day living it has been literally life-changing. As is SVU <3.