What Is EMDR Therapy? How It Helps Trauma and PTSD Survivors
The most effective treatments for PTSD are talk therapies that focus on trauma. These therapies help you deal with and work through your traumatic experiences. Recently, EMDR has become popular, with famous people like Prince Harry and actress Sandra Bullock praising its effectiveness in helping them recover from trauma.
Let’s learn about Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a therapy that helps people heal from trauma and PTSD.
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy that helps treat mental health issues caused by memories of past traumatic events. While it’s best known for treating PTSD, it’s now being used for other conditions as well.
Dr. Francine Shapiro, a renowned psychologist, developed EMDR. She noticed by chance that moving her eyes from side to side could make upsetting thoughts feel less intense. One day, while walking in a park, she realized that her stress decreased as her eyes moved back and forth.
During EMDR therapy, you will be asked to remember a stressful event from your past. After that, the memory is reprogrammed with a new, positive thought.
EMDR combines ideas from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with side-to-side eye movements or other types of rhythmic, left-right stimulation. A key part of EMDR is something called “dual stimulation.” During an EMDR session, you are asked to think or talk about memories, triggers, and painful feelings connected to your trauma or another issue.
At the same time, you focus your eyes on the therapist’s finger as it moves back and forth across your field of vision. At times, therapists use other forms of external stimuli like alternating hand taps or sounds, such as a chime that moves back and forth from ear to ear.
How does EMDR therapy work?
During a traumatic event, intense emotions make it difficult to fully process what is happening. That moment can feel stuck in time. When you remember the trauma, it might feel like you’re going through it again because the images, smells, sounds, and emotions are still very vivid and can easily be brought back by triggers in the present.
When these memories are triggered, they can disrupt your daily life, change how you see yourself and the world, and affect your relationships with others. EMDR therapy seems to help by directly working on the brain and “unlocking” these frozen traumatic memories, allowing you to process and resolve them.
Over time, you can work through the upsetting memories and the emotions associated with them until you can think about the event without feeling like you’re reliving it. The memory is still there, but it becomes less painful.
What happens during EMDR sessions?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy that helps people deal with and heal from painful memories. Here’s how it works:
- Bilateral Stimulation (BLS):
The therapy starts with bilateral stimulation. The patient is asked to do certain physical activities, like moving their eyes side to side, tapping their knees, and listening to sounds while switching ears. While doing these activities, the patient is asked to remember the difficult memory. The activities help the patient to remember the memory in a calmer and less upsetting way.
- Reprocessing the Memory:
During the session, the patient talks about the trauma, the memories, and what they feel. The therapist helps them replace these negative thoughts with better, more positive ones. This step helps to reprocess the memory while changing the view of the trauma, making it less emotionally powerful.
- Changing Perspective:
EMDR helps the patient see their traumatic memory in a new, less upsetting way. What used to cause strong emotions now feels like a past event, allowing the person to reduce their emotional burden.
Through these steps, EMDR promotes healing by changing how the brain deals with traumatic memories, helping people take back control of their feelings and lives.
Who can benefit from EMDR?
EMDR therapy is a good option for people who have gone through different kinds of trauma, whether it’s from one very upsetting event or many difficult experiences over time. Trauma can come in many forms, such as physical or emotional abuse, bullying, accidents, war experiences, natural disasters, or losing someone suddenly. Even people who have felt emotionally neglected for a long time or have seen traumatic events happen to others might find EMDR therapy helpful.
Not everyone who experiences trauma will develop PTSD. However, for those who struggle with things like unwanted thoughts, feeling constantly on edge, and bad dreams, EMDR therapy has been proven to work well and often takes less time than other treatments.
EMDR Therapy in Scottsdale at Inspire Change Counseling
At Inspire Change Counseling, we know that trauma and PTSD can have a deep impact on your life. EMDR therapy is a gentle yet effective way to help you heal from those painful experiences, bringing relief and hope. As trained counselors and social workers, we are here to support you through tough times, whether you’re dealing with trauma, anxiety, depression, or relationship issues.
Stephanie Hanneken and Christy Martin are committed to guiding you on the path to healing using proven approaches like EMDR therapy in Scottsdale. If you’re ready to move forward toward a better future, we’re here to support you every step of the way. Let us help you turn pain into strength and find the peace you deserve.