EMDR Therapy
What Is EMDR Therapy?
Although we commonly ignore or overlook the beliefs we form about ourselves, they are hugely significant, shaping our worldview and influencing every facet of life. For example, if we were often criticized in childhood, we may have internalized the belief that we’re prone to failure and will never be good enough.
Without realizing it, we may assume others are better than us and more deserving of happiness. Sadly, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that affect us as adults may be informed by negative past experiences that weren’t in our control. Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment that addresses our negative core beliefs about ourselves. Often, these negative beliefs develop through traumatic experiences but can also result from any life experience—such as the death of a loved one, chronic illness, or job loss—that contributes to anxiety, dissociation, and depression.
EMDR therapy differs from many traditional talk therapies, which primarily target the cognitive, "thinking" aspects of the brain. Instead, EMDR takes a "bottom-up" approach, focusing on the emotional parts of the brain that are responsible for the fight-or-flight stress response. This targeted technique can activate the brain's natural healing mechanisms, helping to desensitize stressful memories and reprocess them in a way that is more adaptive for the present.
How Does EMDR Treatment Work?
EMDR therapy follows an 8-phase process to ensure clients have been adequately prepared with emotional regulation techniques—such as progressive muscle relaxation and guided visualizations—before the eye desensitization process even begins. After gathering your history, you and your EMDR counselor will collaborate on a treatment plan.
Next, you will be asked to recall a distressing memory and the emotions associated with it. Further, you will explore what that memory led you to believe about yourself as well as what you would prefer to believe.
Once you are ready, you will be asked to recall the targeted distressing memory while simultaneously engaging in bilateral stimulation—such as moving your eyes back and forth or tapping your shoulders with opposite hands—to stimulate both brain hemispheres. As you recall the memory, your therapist will lead you through 30 to 40 passes of the bilateral stimulation best suited to you.
Thereafter, they will check in with you to see how the quality of that memory, including the emotions, bodily sensations, or self-beliefs associated with it, may have shifted. Your therapist will continue with bilateral stimulation and check-ins until the distress of the memory is decreased or eliminated.
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How The Nervous System Responds To Trauma
After we experience trauma, our nervous system can become more sensitive, activating the fight-flight-freeze response more readily. Similar to a faulty smoke alarm, this heightened sensitivity can lead us to react to non-threatening situations. Just like a hypersensitive smoke alarm that goes off when there’s cooking on the stove, or a candle’s been lit, our nervous system may be activated by seemingly benign sights or sounds that are similar enough to the traumatic situation you experienced to set off the alarms at the same intensity. Bilateral stimulation can activate a calming response in the nervous system, connecting the emotional part of our brain with its interpreting part—the prefrontal cortex—to help reprocess disturbing memories and tap into its innate ability to heal.
Who Can Benefit From EMDR Therapy?
At Theory & Method, we have therapists certified in EMDR who work with children, teens, and adults. We utilize EMDR therapy to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), low self-esteem, depression, anxiety and phobias, attachment wounds, and stressful life transitions, such as divorce, moving, or losing a job.
Additionally, EMDR can benefit people who work as first responders or those who’ve experienced complex childhood trauma, emotional abuse, minority stress, or bullying. EMDR is considered a gold standard for trauma treatment, endorsed by the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization. [1]
In clinical trials conducted over the past 30 years, EMDR therapy has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, panic, phobia, as well as behavioral and somatic symptoms. [2] [3] Further, research shows that EMDR can reduce stress in as little as one session. [4]
Why We Incorporate EMDR Into Trauma And PTSD Therapy
The therapists at Theory & Method have each received extensive training in EMDR and participated in ongoing consultation and continuing education. These resources help ensure we provide high-quality, evidence-based therapy bolstered by the clinical experiences of a whole team rather than an individual.
Although the scientific efficacy of EMDR therapy inspired us to get trained in this modality, we are also fans of its client-centered approach. With EMDR counseling, the therapist takes more of a backseat to the healing process, entrusting the brain and nervous system’s capacity to reestablish equilibrium—and the benefits can be everlasting.
Compared to traditional talk therapy, clients who undergo EMDR don’t necessarily have to divulge their traumatic experiences in extreme detail. Further, EMDR can also yield more rapid results compared to other forms of therapy.
We have been encouraged and delighted by the progress our clients have made after incorporating EMDR into treatment. Not only have they reported a reduction in their distress, they have also been able to dislodge the limiting self-beliefs that were holding them back from living in a more secure, connected, and confident way.
Find Out How EMDR Therapy Can Help You
Utilizing helpful therapeutic tools to treat the symptoms of trauma can make a positive difference in your life. If you would like to find out more about EMDR therapy with us, please click here to schedule a free 15-minute call.
[1] https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/recent-research-about-emdr/
[2 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Efficacy-of-Eye-Movement-Desensitization-and-A-Seok-Kim/4ee5fc22b2a5029d7c08599d3cbe6e351d07f406
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32058073/
[4] https://www.emdr.com/frequent-questions/
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