What is EMDR Therapy?
What is EMDR Therapy? EMDR is a structured therapy encouraging patients to briefly focus on traumatic memories while experiencing bilateral stimulation, typically through eye movements. This process is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotional impact of trauma memories. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a well-researched and effective psychotherapeutic method proven to assist individuals in recovering from trauma and symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, addictions, and other distressing life experiences (Maxfield, 2019).
How EMDR therapy works
At the time of a traumatic event, the strong emotions you experience can interfere with your ability to completely process the event, and this one unpleasant moment becomes “frozen in time.” Recalling the traumatic event may feel as though you are reliving it all over again because the images, smells, sounds, and feelings are still so close to the surface, they can easily be triggered in the present. When triggered, these memories can interfere with your daily functioning, change the way you see yourself and the world around you, and impact how you relate to others. EMDR therapy appears to work by directly affecting the brain and “unfreezing” the traumatic memories, allowing you to resolve them. Over time, you’re able to work through the disturbing memories and associated feelings, until you are able to think about the event without reliving it.
How EMDR Psychotherapy works in your BRAIN
Treatment effects
Using rapid eye movements seems to relieve the anxiety associated with the trauma so that the original event can be viewed from a more detached perspective, like watching a movie of what happened. This enables you to access positive ways of reframing the original trauma (reprocessing), and to release the body’s stored negative emotional charges around it (desensitization). Others believe it reactivates parts of the brain that were “shut down” as a coping mechanism during the traumatic event. In this way, your brain reconsiders the experience, allowing the negative, painful emotions to give way to more resolved, empowered feelings.
Who can benefit from EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy helps children and adults of all ages.
Therapists use EMDR therapy to address a wide range of challenges:
- Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
- Chronic Illness and medical issues
- Depression and bipolar disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- Eating disorders
- Grief and loss • Pain
- Performance anxiety
- Personality disorders
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other trauma and stress-related issues
- Sexual assault
- Sleep disturbance
- Substance abuse and addiction
- Violence and abuse
Experiencing EMDR Therapy
After the therapist and client agree that EMDR therapy is a good fit, the client will work through the eight phases of EMDR therapy with their therapist. Attention will be given to a negative image, belief, emotion, and body sensation related to this event, and then to a positive belief that would indicate the issue was resolved. A typical EMDR therapy session lasts from 60-90 minutes.
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