FAQs - How EMDR Therapy Can Help You Move Forward
Trauma can exert a significant impact on our lives, influencing both our mental and physical well-being. It can make it hard to feel like ourselves and achieve what we want in life. For some of us our brains can get stuck on constant high alert after a traumatic event, oscillating between fight, flight, freeze, and fawn trauma responses, while for others certain trauma triggers —such as relationship disappointments, rejection, feeling misunderstood, loud noises, or crowded places—can elicit a trauma response. Seeking Therapy to work through past traumas can truly be life changing and can help you walk on the paths of life you choose to walk down, rather than the paths you feel stuck on because of your trauma, that where EMDR trauma therapy comes in!
What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) is a specialized trauma therapy that helps clients overcome traumatic experiences that are at the core of their distress. Developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, it is a highly effective and evidence-based approach for healing from trauma. Research shows that bottom up approaches to trauma therapy that address how trauma impacts our body are much more effective than top down approaches that rely on logic and rational mind. EMDR is one such bottom up trauma therapy approach that has been used to successfully treat Millions of people over the past 40+ years.
EMDR is based on the core understanding of the neuroplasticity of the brain, i.e., that the brain can often heal itself naturally, in the same way as the body does. Much of this natural coping mechanism occurs during sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Dr. Shapiro developed Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) by helping clients tap this natural healing process by using Rapid Eye Movement and bilateral movements in sessions to successfully treat Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Since then, EMDR has been used to effectively treat a wide range of mental health problems.
What is the EMDR Therapy Process like?
EMDR is based on the core understanding of the neuroplasticity of the brain, i.e., that the brain can often heal itself naturally, in the same way as the body does. It processes through the following stages:
Assessment and Treatment Planning:
In the initial stages of EMDR therapy, we work together to understand and assess the nature and scope of the trauma. Together, they identify specific target memories and associated negative beliefs to target during the therapy sessions.
Desensitization and Reprocessing:
The core phase of EMDR involves desensitizing the emotional charge of traumatic memories. This is achieved through bilateral stimulation, which can include guided eye movements, auditory tones, or tactile sensations. This process helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories, making them less distressing.
Installation of Positive Beliefs:
As the traumatic memories are desensitized, EMDR therapy incorporates the installation of positive beliefs and adaptive thoughts. This step contributes to reshaping the client's perception of themselves and their abilities to cope with the aftermath of trauma.
Body Scan and Closure:
The therapist guides the client through a body scan to ensure that there are no remaining physical sensations or tension associated with the targeted memories. The session concludes with a focus on grounding techniques to bring the client back to the present moment.
What will I experience in an EMDR Reprocessing Session?
The core phase of EMDR involves desensitizing the emotional charge of traumatic memories and letting go of limiting beliefs associated with the memory. This is achieved through bilateral stimulation, which can include guided eye movements, auditory tones, or tactile sensations. This process helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories, making them less distressing.
In a reprocessing session, you will be asked specific questions about a particular disturbing memory agreed upon collaboratively by you and the therapist as the target memory. You’ll then be asked to observe the memory while simultaneously observing bilateral movements, similar to those during REM sleep, tracking a movement with your eyes or auditory movements via headphones. With repeated sets of eye movements, the memory tends to change in such a way that it loses its painful intensity and simply becomes a neutral memory of an event in the past.
As the traumatic memories are desensitized, EMDR therapy incorporates the installation of positive beliefs and adaptive thoughts that came up during reprocessing. The therapist and client then work together on developing new ways of being, assimilating the positive beliefs in client’s life in the form of a Future Template which is value based action to create lasting changes in the client’s life.
Will I will remain in control and empowered?
During EMDR treatment, you will remain in control, fully alert and wide-awake. This is not a form of hypnosis and you can stop the process at any time. Throughout the session, the therapist will support and facilitate your own self-healing and intervene as little as possible. Reprocessing is usually experienced as something that happens spontaneously, and new connections and insights are felt to arise quite naturally from within. As a result, most people experience EMDR as being a natural and very empowering therapy.
What evidence is there that EMDR is a successful treatment?
Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 25 years.The World Health Organization recognizes EMDR therapy as one of the recommended treatments for trauma-related conditions, including PTSD. This acknowledgment is based on an extensive review of clinical evidence supporting the efficacy and safety of EMDR in diverse populations and settings.
The validity and reliability of EMDR has been established by rigorous research, making it the most thoroughly researched method used in the treatment of trauma, and is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as an effective treatment for PTSD.
EMDR therapy has been listed as an effective treatment by the American Psychiatric Association, Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the World Health Organization, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services and numerous other international agencies.
Numerous comprehensive reviews and meta-analyses have consistently found EMDR therapy to be effective in reducing symptoms related to trauma. More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions.
EMDR therapy has a positive impact on intrusive imagery (such as nightmares and flashbacks), numbing, and hyperarousal symptoms of PTSD, as well as on associated grief and depression.
Research indicates that the benefits of EMDR therapy extend beyond the immediate treatment period. A study published in the "Journal of Traumatic Stress" (2005) found that individuals who received EMDR treatment for PTSD showed sustained improvement in symptoms over time, supporting the long-term efficacy of the therapy.
More than a dozen studies support the use of EMDR therapy for trauma resulting from natural disaster and treatment of war- and terrorism-related trauma. With little modification, EMDR has been used successfully in response to a variety of mass casualty events such as community homicide and can be integrated with educational formats.
In several direct comparisons with cognitive-behavioral therapy, EMDR offers equivalent effects more quickly (fewer sessions and/or no homework), process analyses indicate less distress for individuals undergoing treatment. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy.
For more information about EMDR and research results for efficacy of EMDR please visit: https://www.emdrhap.org/content/what-is-emdr/research-findings
www.emdr.org
How Can I Help a Loved One Struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress?
Recognizing trauma responses within ourselves and others is the first step toward healing and resilience. Healing from trauma is a complex and nonlinear process, but with the right tools and support, individuals can learn to navigate their trauma responses and find hope and healing on their path to recovery.
Understanding that post-traumatic stress is not a sign of weakness but rather a natural response to overwhelming trauma is crucial in supporting individuals on their healing journey. It is a biological system stuck in hyperdrive! By recognizing the biological underpinnings of trauma responses and the challenges faced by those with PTSD, we can foster greater empathy, reduce stigma, and provide more effective support for those struggling to reclaim their lives after trauma.
Helping a loved one struggling seek professional help to overcome the ways in which trauma is impacting their lives will go a long way! Trauma-focused therapies such as Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), trauma-informed therapy, mindfulness practices, and somatic experiencing can help individuals regulate their nervous system, process past traumas, and cultivate healthier coping mechanisms. They aim to help individuals process and integrate their traumatic experiences, thereby reducing the intensity of their trauma responses and restoring a sense of control and resilience.
We know what it takes to get your life back and thrive once again as we are with our clients every step of the way. If you’re worried about a loved one’s struggles with trauma and want to connect with a therapist, please reach out to us to get them the help that they need.
