More About EMDR

Accessing memories.

When a person recalls a distressing memory, he or she can re-experience what they saw, heard, smelt, tasted, or felt, which can be intense and emotionally overwhelming. By alternating left-right stimulation of the brain with eye movements, clients can stimulate the “frozen” information processing system. During the process, the distressing memories to lose their intensity so that the memories reduce suffering and are more like ordinary memories.

How effective is EMDR?

When compared to other methods of therapy (psychoanalysis, cognitive, behavioral, etc), EMDR has been rated as far more effective by mental health professionals in the treatment of trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Clients experience emotional healing at an accelerated rate. If we use the metaphor of a driving a car through a tunnel to get to the other side, (where the tunnel represents the journey of healing and the other side of the tunnel represents the healed state), EMDR is like driving your car through the tunnel at very high speeds. Because of this accelerated processing, you should notice improvement within each session.

Who can benefit from EMDR?

Anyone who has ever experienced or witnessed a traumatic event that they have not recovered from is appropriate for EMDR. Often these people have one or more of the following symptoms in varying degrees: feeling unable to deal with life, excess stress/tension, depression, anxiety, restlessness, sleep problems, fatigue, appetite disturbances, and ongoing physical health concerns. In the more severe cases, panic attacks, flashbacks, substance abuse, nightmares, obsessions, compulsions, eating disorders, and suicidal tendencies often occur. EMDR is also an effective technique to assist with the healing of physical health concerns.

How does EMDR treatment work?

When trauma is experienced, it can become locked in the nervous system with the original images, sounds, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. These images are then stored in the brain (and also the body) in an isolated memory network preventing learning from taking place. Old material is continually activated and one ends up feeling “emotionally paralyzed”, unable to move beyond their painful past. In another part of the brain, a separate neural network holds the information needed to resolve the conflict.

The two networks are simply unable to connect with one another. Once EMDR processing starts, the two networks can finally connect, thus relieving one from a lifetime of emotional pain . New information allows the mind to view the trauma in a different way and to finally overcome their traumatic pasts.

What does treatment with EMDR look like?

EMDR focuses first on the past, second on the present and third on the future. The past is focused on first because it is the past unresolved pain (whether it is childhood or the more recent past) which is causing distress in the present. Dealing with the past is therefore going to the root of the problem. For example, if a client comes in with debilitating depression and has a history of depression since a death in her family, we would focus on the time around the death first as it is likely the root of the depression. To only focus on the symptoms of the depression in the present would be like taking an aspirin for a headache caused by a brain tumor rather than working with the brain tumor itself. Once the suffering and painful memories have been cleared, most of the present symptom picture will also be cleared. If anything is left unresolved in the present, it is attended to next. Then comes preparation for the future. Many people have fears about healing … how their life will change, how they will function with their new perspective on the world, etc. “Future” work is about being prepared to live a fulfilling, trauma-free life.