EMDR
Hurt often holds the hidden key to unlocking your greatest healing.
– Brittany Burgunder
Hurt often holds the hidden key to unlocking your greatest healing.
Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, they may not be processed without help. Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.” This is where EMDR comes in handy.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy. It is a well researched form of therapy and is effective in treating a variety of issues including trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, panic disorders, and many other distressing life experiences. EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved. If you’d like more information about EMDR, check out this video https://youtu.b/Pkfln-Zt
EMDR is effective for people who are struggling with the following issues:
- Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
- Chronic Illness and medical issues
- Depression and bipolar disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- Eating disorders
- Grief and loss
- Pain
- Performance anxiety
- Personality disorders
- PTSD and other trauma and stress-related issues
- Sexual assault
- Sleep disturbance
- Substance abuse and addiction
- Violence and abuse
What to expect during EMDR treatment
EMDR therapy includes eight phases:
Phase 1 - History and Treatment Planning
This phase generally takes 1-2 sessions and can show up at other times during treatment. This phase includes the therapist getting to know the client and their history, what they are coming in for, what they are wanting to target for processing, and other aspects relevant to treatment. From there, the therapist creates a treatment plan that focuses on the event(s) from the past that created the problem, the present situations that cause distress, and the key skills or behaviors the client needs to learn for his future well-being.
Phase 2 - Preparation
For most clients, this phase takes about 1-4 sessions to complete and may show up throughout other parts of treatment. In this phase, the therapist will teach you some specific techniques so you can rapidly deal with any emotional disturbance that may arise. If you can do that, you are generally able to proceed to the next phase. This is also the time when the therapist will explain EMDR, how it is done, and what the person can expect during and after treatment.
Phase 3 - Assessment
In this phase, you will be prompted to access each target to be processed. The therapist then identifies different parts of the target to be processed. This includes identifying any negative beliefs, emotions, or body sensations leftover from the trauma and a positive belief you want to replace these with. We then move directly into phase 4.
Phase 4 - Desensitization
This phase focuses on the client’s disturbing emotions and sensations related to the target memory. This phase deals with all of the person’s responses (including other memories, insights and associations that may arise) as the targeted event changes and its disturbing elements are resolved. During this phase, the therapist leads the person in sets of eye movements, sounds, or taps with appropriate shifts and changes of focus until the client no longer has any disturbance related to the target.
Phase 5 - Installation
The goal of this phase is to concentrate on increasing the strength of the positive belief identified in phase 3. This positive belief will replace a negative belief leftover from the trauma.
Phase 6 - Body Scan
After the positive belief has been strengthened, the therapist guides the client through a body scan to determine if there is any more tension or disturbance in the body related to the target memory. If any disturbance remains, processing continues until you feel no disturbance.
Phase 7 - Closure
The goal of this phase is to concentrate on increasing the strength of the positive belief identified in phase 3. This positive belief will replace a negative belief leftover from the trauma.
Phase 8 - Reevaluation
After the positive belief has been strengthened, the therapist guides the client through a body scan to determine if there is any more tension or disturbance in the body related to the target memory. If any disturbance remains, processing continues until you feel no disturbance.
Helpful Definitions
Reprocessing: In EMDR, “processing” does not mean talking about a traumatic experience. “Processing” means setting up a learning state that will allow experiences that are causing problems to be broken down and stored appropriately in your brain. Any inappropriate emotions, beliefs, and body sensations will be discarded and replaced with emotions, understanding, and perspectives that will lead to healthy and useful behaviors and interactions.
Bilateral Stimulation or BLS: In EMDR, BLS unlocks the nervous system and allows your brain to process the stuck experience. While this may sound odd, there has been a lot of research on the effects of BLS. BLS has different forms and these include eye movements, tapping, or sounds. BLS can be used at different phases in EMDR but is mostly used during the desensitization phase.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is EMDR therapy different from other types of therapy?
EMDR is different from other types of therapies because it does not require talking in detail about the presenting issue or doing homework in between sessions. Unlike other therapies, EMDR does not focus on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from a distressing experience, but rather on allowing the brain to resume its natural healing process.
Where can I find additional information about EMDR?
Please refer to the official website of EMDR for more information: https://www.emdria.org/ or https://youtu.be/Pkfln-ZtWeY.
Where can I find research about EMDR?
https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/recent-research-about-emdr/
How long does EMDR therapy take?
From EMDRIA website: “A typical EMDR therapy session lasts from 60-90 minutes. It could take one or several sessions to process one traumatic experience. The goal of EMDR therapy is to process completely the traumatic experiences that are causing problems and to include new ones that are needed for full health. The amount of time it will take to complete EMDR treatment for traumatic experiences will depend upon the history of the client. Although EMDR therapy may produce results more rapidly than other forms of therapy, speed is not the goal of therapy and it is important to remember that every client has different needs.”