Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
What exactly is Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a form of therapy that is used to treat trauma. EMDR works on the basis that the brain can heal itself. For example, we may go to bed feeling tired and exhausted after a stressful day at work. If we can sleep deep enough to experience the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep cycle, we will more than likely wake up feeling rested and ready to start a new day.
What is trauma?
Trauma is the body’s response to a deeply distressing event. Many therapists separate trauma into “Big T” and “Little t” traumas. “Big T” traumas are the big events that caused a high level of distress, such as being raped or witnessing the death of a loved one. “Little t” traumas are smaller events that by themselves may feel small but still create some level of distress or negative energy in the body. “Little t” traumas may accumulate over time to create problems similar to “Big T” traumas. For example, being around people who don’t validate you creates some level of distress. Staying in that invalidating environment for years allows the distress to accumulate creating higher levels of distress.
One other way to explain is to compare “Big T” traumas to a major injury and “Small t” traumas to a paper cut. At first glance it looks like there is no comparison as the major injury is much more distressing than the paper cut. However, imagine having 1,000 paper cuts; because of the accumulation factor, now the impact between the “Big T” and “Little t” traumas becomes similar.
How does trauma impact the brain?
Our brain senses and processes information from all of our experiences. If the experience creates a high level of distress, our brain will become overwhelmed or flooded and unable to continue processing. The memory of that experience may become frozen, unprocessed, and/or even fragmented into an emotional form in our limbic or emotional system.
Memories stuck in the limbic system may be long forgotten; however, these frozen, unprocessed, and fragmented memories can be triggered from present situations. Memories that do not overwhelm or flood our brain are able to be processed through our brain’s cortex where language is combined with the memory to create a story.
How does EMDR work in simple terms?
EMDR utilizes the natural healing abilities of the brain by mimicking the back-and-forth eye movements that occur during REM sleep while at the same time processing the frozen, unprocessed, and/or fragmented memories. The eye movements, also known as bilateral stimulation, can be done with the therapist using his or her finger or a light bar.
The back-and-forth movement of the eyes allows the memories to move from the limbic system and through the cortex to allow language to be added to the memory. This movement desensitizes the high levels of distress and allows the memory to be processed and stored into a story form in our brain.
What issues can EMDR be used to treat?
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PTSD
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Betrayal trauma
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Anxiety
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Depression
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Phobias
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Grief and loss
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Anger
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Addictions
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Distressing feelings such as inadequacy, insignificance, or inferiority
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Abuse (emotional, physical, & sexual)
Do I lose control during EMDR?
No. EMDR is not hypnosis, so you will remain in control at all points during the process. You can stop the session at any point. EMDR simply allows our brain to process in its own way similar to the way our brain processes the day’s events through REM sleep.
How long does treatment take?
EMDR starts with learning about your history, helping you to develop or strengthen sufficient coping skills to manage any distress or negative energy that may arise, and assessment of the different components of the memory that are to be processed. Once the actual eye movements start, some clients have experienced some level of relief even after just one session. The length of time for treatment varies on how your brain processes information, the number of memories you need to process and the time it takes for a memory to move through your brain to the place where it can be stored.
What if I want to learn more about EMDR?
You can talk with your therapist and you can research further information by going to www.emdria.org and www.emdr.com
To schedule a consult to see if EMDR is right for you, click here.