What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy represents a dynamic psychotherapy method already renown internationally for its effectiveness in helping people recover from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and panic disorders, and depression. EMDR offers an alternative to talk therapy, and results sometimes come sooner than with other treatments.
How does EMDR work?
If you want to describe as little as possible the event that hurt you, then EMDR might be the solution for you. Consciously changing mental, emotional and behavioral patterns is not at the core of this therapeutic modality. Instead, what EMDR does is to allow the brain to process lingering trauma. Even though our brains are incredible machines, they do need help processing certain traumatic events. Disturbing events clog the brain, they block its ability to properly regulate mental health. This, in turn, creates emotional pain, which destabilizes even more. Through EMDR, the blockage from the brain is removed, so the brain returns to the healing mode.
How do you measure success with EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy helps you access and process traumatic memories and painful experiences. This treatment alleviates emotional distress, and reduces the overstimulation caused by unprocessed trauma and its triggers. This results in a change of beliefs – a shift that happens naturally, as the inner tension caused by the traumatic situation decreases.
The pain we carry within, consciously or unknowingly, makes us feel unworthy, powerless, anxious, and confused. Without talking too much about what hurt us, and without directly challenging the way we see ourselves and others post-trauma, EMDR therapy manages to help us make space for healing.
Why does external stimulus work?
In EMDR therapy you recall traumatic situations in small doses. At the same time, the therapist diverts your attention using an external stimulus, such as directed lateral eye movement, hand tapping or bilateral sound. As you recall the painful experience this way, the brain starts making certain associations, and the meaning of the traumatic situation changes. The work doesn’t happen just at a mental level, but also at an emotional level. In EMDR, recovery happens not because the therapist helps you gain perspective, but because the therapist helps your brain resume the healing process.
The 8 EMDR phases
This therapy consists of eight steps. The first step is the discussion between therapist and client, where you talk about your history, and lay out a healing plan. In the second phase, the therapist teaches you how to handle emotional pain, so you can maintain balance during your sessions and between them. In the next three phases, you decide on which memory you are going to work on, and start the EMDR procedures. Here you identify:
- the images connected to the traumatic memories
- a negative belief about yourself
- sensations and emotions stirred by the trauma
Also, here you discover a positive belief.
The seventh phase is closure. The therapist asks you to write down what surfaced during the week. This helps you remember the self-soothing practices learned in the second phase. In the last phase, the therapist encourages you to look at the progress you made thus far.
A non-traditional therapy
EMDR therapy is a relatively new psychotherapy, whose growing popularity cannot be overlooked. The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, among other health organizations around the world, acknowledges its efficiency. With EMDR therapy you can feel that something is shifting within yourself, in just several sessions. This therapy represents an empowering tool that allows you to jump-start your brain’s healing capacity. If you resonate with what you hear about EMDR, I highly recommend you give it a try.