Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative therapeutic method that helps people heal from trauma and other challenging life experiences. Extensively researched, EMDR has proven to be an effective approach to healing both single incident and long-standing traumatic experiences, such as sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, combat experiences, major surgeries, serious accidents, and natural disasters. For this reason, EMDR is used by many therapists to support individuals who have PTSD or complex PTSD.
EMDR is also effective at helping people resolve painful past experiences, from both childhood and adulthood, which many would not classify as traumatic. It’s important to remember that less traumatic life experiences can often cause even more painful symptoms than major traumas because they tend to occur more frequently and over longer periods of time; this can impact the beliefs that people develop about themselves, others, and the world. Many of these challenging life experiences take place throughout childhood and may involve hurtful experiences with parents or peers.
EMDR can also help to resolve phobias, strengthen positive beliefs and memories, and support performance enhancement in several fields, such as school, work, sports, and public speaking.
What is involved during an EMDR session?
An EMDR session involves selecting a memory and noticing what images, thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations are connected with that event. While the client is focusing on this memory, bilateral (back and forth) stimulation is used to process and integrate the event. The forms of bilateral movement that are used in EMDR are moving the eyes back and forth, holding hand pieces that vibrate back and forth, and/or listening to bilateral sound through head phones.
While a client is noticing all the components of a memory and using bilateral stimulation, they are then asked to allow the mind to go wherever it naturally goes, and to just notice what happens—much like watching the scenery pass on a moving train. During this process, the chosen memory and the belief systems that go along with it (for example, “I am unsafe”, “I am unlovable”, “I am powerless”) become desensitized, which means that they no longer negatively affect the client.
How does EMDR work?
When a person experiences a disturbing event, or many hurtful events over time, biological and neurochemical changes may cause it to get “stuck” in the brain and nervous system. The memory stays in the brain in its original state, along with the corresponding emotions, body sensations, and negative beliefs that went along with it. This leads people to get triggered by current experiences that resemble the original memory in some way, which involves feeling the same way they did when the disturbing event occurred. In short, unresolved memories prevent people from being able to discern the past from the present.
When this happens, EMDR is able to kick-start an accelerated natural healing process that allows the memory to successfully move into the past. Since traumatic memory is stored in the right (emotional) hemisphere of the brain, the bilateral stimulation used with EMDR helps the psyche to process past experiences in a more adaptable way so that the left and right sides of the brain can become integrated and the mind/body can return to a state of balance. With the help of EMDR, people are able to recall old memories without experiencing the disturbing feelings that were previously connected to them. EMDR also empowers people to cultivate self-love, create new and adaptive core beliefs, and live more fully in the present.
For more information about EMDR, please visit:
The EMDR Institute: www.emdr.com
The International EMDR Association: www.emdria.org
San Diego Trauma Therapy: www.SanDiegoTraumaTherapy.com