What is EMDR Therapy?
Let’s first get this out of the way: EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Phew. Now say that five times fast! When I first started incorporating EMDR into my practice, I had a client facetiously ask me, “What good is wiggling my eyes back and forth going to do?” Dozens of controlled clinical trials and research studies indicate that bilateral stimulation, whether it’s eye movements, tapping, or sound, has the potential to greatly heal emotional distress that results from disturbing life experiences.
Have you ever gone to bed angry or upset? You may have noticed that in the morning, you wake up feeling slightly better. During sleep, we go into a stage called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) where our eyes move rapidly behind our eyes. In this stage, people can have vivid dreams, increased brain activity, and temporary muscle paralysis to not act out dreams. EMDR appears to tap into a similar biological mechanism as REM. This bilateral stimulation, oscillating your eyes from one plane of your body to the other, activates both parts of the brain instead of just one part of the brain as in talk therapy. This allows the body to access internal associations and reprocess the traumatic memory and disturbing feelings much quicker.
Adaptive Information Processing Model
EMDR utilizes the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, both of which were developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. The AIP model postulates that your brain processes and stores traumatic events differently than normal events. During normal events, your brain stores memories and connects them to other memories through your neural network. During traumatic events, this network connection becomes severed, causing a disconnect between what you experience (i.e.: hear, see, feel) and what your brain stores in your memory through language.
In cases of distress, your brain stores trauma in a way that doesn’t allow for healing. Envision a metaphorical open wound in your brain that can’t heal. Since this wound can’t repair itself, then your brain doesn’t receive the signals that the threat is over. Therefore, new experiences can attach to that open wound and reinforce the negative beliefs and experiences. This can also happen with suppressed memories. In cases of suppression, your brain is trying to protect you from painful and upsetting memories. However, suppression can still cause injuries in the form of negative emotions, beliefs, and behaviors.
How EMDR Therapy Works
EMDR encompasses eight phases that take place over multiple sessions. Session length varies for each person, but a single traumatic event usually takes three to six sessions to reprocess. More complex traumas may take eight to twelve sessions to reprocess, if not longer. The eight phases include:
1. Gather History and Information. During this time, I’ll get to know you and what’s bringing you into therapy. I’ll ask questions about your past and assess your current functioning. I may also ask about the upsetting or disturbing memories that you’d like to work on, where you share only as much as you feel comfortable. We’ll also discuss the goals you’d like to set for therapy.
2. Preparation and Education. I’ll talk to you about what you can expect from EMDR. We’ll look at your coping skills and if we can expand on them. We’ll discuss what can help you feel stable and safe during sessions.
3. Assessment. We’ll identify themes and specific memories that you’d like to target. We’ll understand the negative beliefs that arose from the distressing event that impact how you feel about yourself today. We’ll also look towards positive beliefs that you’d like to feel about yourself moving forward from the event.
4. Desensitization and Reprocessing. We’ll activate the memory by helping you identify one or more detailed negative images, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. Throughout the reprocessing with bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or sound) I’ll help you notice any new thoughts, insights, or sensations that you may be experiencing.
5. Installation. After reprocessing, I’ll help you install the positive cognition that you’d like to believe about yourself. It can be something that you said in phase three or a new positive belief.
6. Body Scan. I’ll take you through a body scanning exercise, where you will monitor any bodily sensations (i.e.: pain, pressure, tingling, numbness, tightness, blockage, etc.) as you think about the negative memory. This will allow us to assess your body’s response to EMDR overall. As we go through our sessions, your symptoms should decrease until none remain. Once your symptoms dissipate, our reprocessing is complete.
7. Closure and Stabilization. I’ll discuss what to expect between sessions and how to regulate yourself if you have any negative thoughts, feelings, images, or dreams between sessions. I’ll ask you to try and remember or write down your experiences between sessions, as those can be useful to bring up in the reprocessing.
8. Reevaluation and Continuing Care. We’ll talk about your progress and goals, what you got out of EMDR therapy, and next steps for care.
Who Can Benefit from EMDR Therapy?
The most widespread and researched candidates for EMDR include those experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However EMDR can also be used with therapy goers experiencing:
· Anxiety
· Depression
· Dissociative disorders
· Eating disorders
· Obsessive-compulsive disorders
· Personality disorders
If you feel that EMDR may be a suitable treatment option for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me here!
