EMDR Therapy
What Is EMDR Therapy?
Many of us carry the weight of traumatic memories throughout our lives. Even years or decades later, unresolved trauma can affect how we think and feel. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing can help neutralize the negative thoughts and feelings associated with disturbing memories, helping lessen their effect on us.
Memories are often likened to movies that play within our minds. Most of our memories are relatively subdued, like a 1920s black-and-white movie. In comparison, a traumatic memory can feel like an IMAX theater experience that, when remembered, feels intense and all-consuming. Utilizing EMDR therapy, we can turn down the ‘emotional volume’ experienced when recalling painful memories. Unlike hypnosis, the goal isn’t to alter or forget the memory entirely but rather to reduce the emotional charge attached to it.
EMDR therapy was founded by Francine Shapiro in 1987. Ms. Shapiro’s initial breakthrough occurred when she was walking in a park and noticed that “bringing her eye movements under voluntary control while thinking about a distressing memory reduced the anxiety associated with it.” [1] After years of clinical trials to test its effectiveness, EMDR is now practiced worldwide and recognized as a successful treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, and other trauma and stress-related disorders. [2]
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What EMDR Therapy Sessions Look Like
Before getting underway with EMDR, clients need to build a strong therapeutic relationship with their therapist and develop resources that will support reprocessing painful memories. In the lead-up to EMDR therapy, the counselor ensures the client has mastered coping skills, such as deep breathing techniques, grounding skills, and guided visualizations, like the calm place exercise.
After targeting the memory that’s causing pain, the client will identify images, beliefs, and feelings they associate with it. They will then be asked to focus on that memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation, a visual, auditory, or tactile activity that simultaneously activates both hemispheres of the brain. Bilateral stimulation can be achieved by side-to-side eye movements, listening to biaural sounds, or holding onto buzzers in each hand. The reprocessing phase of EMDR therapy is conducted in short intervals.
EMDR sessions are concluded by having the client associate a positive belief with the memory until it feels completely true. After conducting a head-to-toe body scan, they will be guided by the therapist to return to a state of calm. It will be up to them whether or not they share their experience and impressions with the therapist.
Other Things To Know About EMDR Counseling
Because I treat clients exclusively online, I use an EMDR therapy platform that provides visual, auditory, and tactile bilateral stimulation options. Clients can use one or more of these during the desensitization phase of EMDR therapy, depending on what feels most comfortable for them.
Who Can Benefit From EMDR Therapy?
EMDR therapy is an effective modality to address trauma as well as dismantle negative self-beliefs that usually form in childhood. EMDR can also address PTSD, phobias, social anxiety, and chronic pain. Unlike talk therapy modalities, clients don’t have to relive their trauma by fully recounting it to the therapist. Since it’s generally a shorter treatment, EMDR can be a good fit for anyone with ADHD or is neurodivergent. I am always happy to collaborate with prescribing physicians to ensure the best alignment of care possible.
After we utilize EMDR to neutralize painful memories, we may incorporate Narrative Therapy, a deeply collaborative process that empowers the client to decide how they want to write their story moving forward. By editing the parts of their story that no longer serve them, clients can redefine who they are and who they want to be.
EMDR therapy is an evidence-based treatment that is commonly practiced around the world. In the United States, the Department of Veterans Affairs lists EMDR as a “best practice” in treating veterans experiencing PTSD. [3] Additionally, EMDR has been endorsed by many other organizations, including The World Health Organization, The American Psychiatric Association, The American Psychological Association, and The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. [4]
Why I Incorporate EMDR Therapy
The more I learn about and share EMDR with clients, the more I realize how helpful it can be in resolving all forms of trauma. The benefits of EMDR therapy are far-reaching. In addition to “Big T” trauma events that are more readily recognizable, EMDR can also address the more nuanced “little t” traumas that become deeply engrained and impact clients daily.
Unlike other traditional methods of talk therapy, EMDR does not continuously expose clients to a triggering memory. Using bilateral stimulation to target the repressed memory, EMDR treatment can effectively reprocess the memory in short bursts. Rather than the analytical, conscious brain being front and center, EMDR’s protocol allows unconscious parts of the brain to do the heavy lifting.
Utilizing EMDR therapy, clients often experience new insights into long-held beliefs about themselves and how they view the world. It’s only after EMDR that they realize how these beliefs have shaped their relationships with others as well as their relationships with themselves. In addition to recalling memories without the same level of anxiety or sadness they felt before treatment, they also gain a deeper awareness of how their thoughts influence and impact their behaviors. Clients learn how their perceptions are malleable and that they possess the power to change them.
Find Out How EMDR Therapy Can Help You
Changing deeply held beliefs about yourself can open you up to new thoughts, feelings, and possibilities. If you would like to learn more about online EMDR therapy and how working with a trained therapist can help you, please call or text 813-539-8990 or
visit my contact page.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6106867/rapy/recent-research-about-emdr/
[2] https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/recent-research-about-emdr/
[3] https://www.ptsd.va.gov/family/how_help_emdr.asp
[4] https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/recent-research-about-emdr/