EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
(EMDR) Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful method
of psychotherapy that works on the physiological and emotional bases of
problems to facilitate change. Although EMDR started out as a treatment
for trauma (and has been extensively researched and proven effective for the
treatment of trauma), it is now being applied to a number of conditions
including phobias, chronic pain, and grief. To date, EMDR has helped an
estimated two million people of all ages relieve many types of psychological
stress.
How
does EMDR work?
Exactly how EMDR
works is not really known. We do know
from memory and brain research that painful or traumatic experiences are stored
in a different part of the brain than pleasant or neutral ones. Normally, if we're troubled by something, we
think about it, talk about it, perhaps dream about it and eventually we are
able to come to some sort of adaptive resolution. We find a way to come to
terms with it in a healthy way, enabling us to put it behind us. When we
experience a trauma or very painful event, something happens that interrupts
this process. Instead, the traumatic
material gets 'stuck' in the brain and remains in its original form, with the
same thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, smells and sounds. It's as though it is sealed off from the healthy,
functioning brain. That's why it's not
uncommon for a person who's had years of talk therapy to find that they still
hurt and haven't changed as much as they had hoped. This is because the dysfunctional material
still has not been processed.
What researchers think is that EMDR is able to 'nudge'
that stored material so that it neurologically reconnects with the healthy
brain and then is reprocessed and integrated at an accelerated speed. Once
normal information processing is resumed, following a successful EMDR session,
a person no longer relives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is
brought to mind. You still remember what happened, but it is less upsetting.
The most popular theory as to how this happens is that EMDR creates brain
activity that is similar to that which occurs during REM (rapid eye movement)
sleep. And it's during this REM phase (when we dream) that we resolve
conflicts, process information and consolidate learning and memory. By creating similar brain activity, while
thinking about a painful event, it appears that EMDR is able to help the brain
finally process the 'stuck' material, enabling the person to arrive at an
adaptive solution. The painful event or
trauma becomes an unfortunate incident but no longer produces the emotional
pain that it did before.
What
conditions are treated by EMDR?
EMDR has been most
powerful in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major trauma
such as that experienced by combat veterans, survivors of natural disasters,
and victims of violent crime. However, its uses also include “small t” traumas:
events that happen in everyone’s lives, but which leave us with the inability
to reprocess negative beliefs about ourselves. These include being teased in
school, ridiculed by a parent, or getting lost as a child in a public place.
EMDR is widely used to treat the following problems:
• Depression
• Childhood
trauma
• Physical
abuse
• Sexual
abuse
• Obsessive-compulsive
disorders
• Complicated
grief
• Trauma
from car accidents
• Episodic
rage
• Panic
attacks
• Low
self-esteem
• Relationship
problems
• Performance
anxiety
• Insomnia
• Chronic
pain
What
are some reported benefits of EMDR?
The main benefit of EMDR is the speed at which
deep-seated problems can be resolved. One study showed that “EMDR was twice as
effective in half the amount of time of standard traditional psychotherapeutic
care.”
Unlike many “talk” therapies, EMDR does not require the
client to go into detail about the distressing events of the past. While
communicating and establishing trust with the therapist is essential, what
seems to be equally important to the process is the client registering the
event and holding the recall within during the eye movement sessions and the
reprocessing. There is no need to analyze the trauma for long periods of time.
EMDR is a multi-faceted approach, not limited to
cognitive, behavioral, or somatic methods, but a synthesis of all three and
more. The fact that it simultaneously works on mind, body, and emotions may
account for its success in taking mere intellectual understanding of the
origins of a problem (e.g. “I know I have guilt over killing in the war”) to a
holistic resolution involving a bodily release, where post-traumatic symptoms
such as intrusive thoughts, nightmares, and anger outbursts clear up.
Since all therapies in some way involve getting to the
roots of psychological problems, it is a benefit of EMDR that the trauma that
must be re-experienced during treatment is relatively short-lived. Cognitive
reprocessing occurs simultaneously with memory recall.
[Go to www.emdr.com for
more information.]