What Is EMDR and How Does It Work?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapy that assists individuals in healing from trauma without the need to go into detail about the trauma, which helps to reduce the emotional charge of the experience(s) and heal the traumatic symptoms.
The traumatic event doesn’t disappear from your memory, but the feelings of distress, fear, terror, or anxiety decrease to a point that it can feel as if the event happened to someone else and is no longer having a negative emotional or physical impact on the client.
Bilateral stimulation is used in session (moving eyes from left to right at a particular pace or holding “tappers” which buzz alternatingly on the left and right sides), and this helps by mimicking REM sleep and helping the brain to reprocess distressing memories and take the emotional charge out of them.
What Makes EMDR Different from Traditional Talk Therapy?
In EMDR treatment, there is no need to retell the traumatic event in detail or even to remember all the details. The therapist and client can use a memory, an emotion, or a sensation to bring up the activation related to the distressing incident. Then the event is reprocessed using bilateral stimulation.
EMDR focuses on desensitizing the emotional charge and building positive beliefs that evolve from the original negative belief.
The Types of Issues EMDR Can Treat
- PTSD
- Anxiety
- Panic attacks
- Grief and loss
- Phobias and performance anxiety
- Childhood trauma
What to Expect in an EMDR Session
It is an 8-phase approach that includes history taking, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation.
Attachment-focused EMDR incorporates the use of an individually created resource team to help with attachment ruptures.
Sessions include resource creation in order to help the client feel safe when connecting to the distressing event, and slower pacing bilateral stimulation helps to integrate these resources.
Faster bilateral stimulation is used when exploring the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that may arise during the reprocessing.
Who Is EMDR For?
- Individuals who feel stuck in their healing process despite having awareness of the problem
- People who have tried other therapies without lasting results
- Clients who experience physical or emotional symptoms linked to specific memories or moments in time
The Science Behind EMDR
EMDR’s effectiveness for treating trauma and PTSD as an evidence-based practice has been researched and endorsed.
EMDR has been endorsed by organizations like the American Psychological Association (APA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) for its effectiveness in treating trauma and PTSD.
Ready to Try EMDR?
Please reach out to one of our EMDR therapists for a consultation and explore whether EMDR is the right fit for you.
