EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
TREATMENT for TRAUMa, ANXIETY, OCD, chronic Illness, and MORE
EMDR therapy is one of the best-known and most effective psychological treatments for trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In addition to treating trauma, EMDR can also be used to treat a surprising variety of other issues such as anxiety, chronic pain and illness, phobias, OCD, performance anxiety (such as in sports or exam-taking), addiction, phantom limb pain, and even irritable bowel syndrome. It combines recalling old memories with targeted back-and-forth movements (such as tracking a moving object with your eyes, holding handheld buzzers that alternate gently between each hand, or crossing your arms in a “butterfly hug” and then tapping your hands across your shoulders), to help re-process distressing thoughts and memories, and reduce the degree of distress attached to them.
why does EMDR work for so many different things?
Our minds and bodies are inextricably connected, and when we have gone through an extremely difficult experience, our bodies can sometimes have difficulty returning back to a relaxed baseline, and so we react as if we are constantly under threat, whether that means being emotionally on edge, or in chronic physical pain. EMDR can address both the mental and physical manifestions of chronic, toxic stress that underlie a wide variety of emotional, psychological, and physical problems.
Why Is Processing Trauma Important?
When people have experienced something traumatic, it’s natural for them to want to put it in the past and try to forget about it. But the problem is, sometimes the event is not easily forgettable, either because it was so upsetting or so ongoing. And because our brains are good at telling us when our bodies need to take action to resolve something (like sending us hunger pangs when our stomachs are empty), our brains might also keep sending danger signals long after a trauma has passed, reminding us that we’re still distressed about it. So instead of forgetting the trauma as we’d hoped to do, we end up being continually reminded of it through flashbacks, anxiety and nightmares; or we find it so intolerable to remember the trauma that we numb our emotions completely, float through life absently, or block out whole time periods from our memory. And while these are all admirable survival instincts that our brains use to try and protect us, they can make us miserable when unresolved, either by disrupting your sleep, leaving you emotionally numb or robotic when you wish you could feel more present, or leading to chronic physical health symptoms as a way of expressing the emotional pain that you haven’t been able to resolve.
WHAT does processing trauma with emdr look like?
The goal of EMDR is essentially to provide a safe and structured framework where disturbing thoughts and memories can be allowed to surface, but without having to linger on or talk much about them - instead, you’re imagining the details of the event passing by as if you’re a passenger on a train, while incorporating back-and-forth movements that mimic the kind of back-and-forth fluttering your eyes do during REM sleep. Ever noticed how when you “sleep on” an issue, you often wake up feeling more calm and clear-headed about it? While sleeping on day-to-day stressors is often sufficient for feeling better, traumatic memories require a bit more direct intervention. With EMDR, you’ll use back-and-forth, REM-like movements that assist with processing — but you’ll be awake and alert the whole time — and you’ll have the help of the therapist to guide you through the distressing content that your brain has had trouble “putting to rest” on its own.
Is EMDR Overwhelming?
Sometimes people worry that they’ll be so overwhelmed by revisiting painful memories that it will just make everything worse, or conversely that it will be hard for them to access their feelings at all when they’re so used to feeling nothing.
That’s why you and your therapist will do some really good, thorough preparation work before starting any reprocessing. Whether you’re the type of person who gets easily overwhelmed with emotion, or struggles to connect to any emotion at all, we can tailor the process to a pace and approach that works for your personality type.
preparation is key
Your therapist’s job is to help you feel prepared both with what to expect about the process of EMDR, as well as teach you calming strategies that the two of you will use to close each EMDR reprocessing session. You can also pause and use these strategies anytime during the session as needed if things get too overwhelming. And while it’s possible that you might feel momentarily overwhelmed during the process, you and the therapist will be working together to identify and operate within the “sweet spot” of what we call your zone of tolerance for distress. If things get too distressing, we will pause and use a variety of calming and grounding strategies to help you get back to a more comfortable emotional baseline.
We want to make enough space for emotion that your brain can do its job of reprocessing, but not throw you in the deep end of painful emotions with no ladder out — that would be counterproductive and re-traumatizing, and it’s exactly what an EMDR therapist is trained to prevent from happening.
growing your ability to tolerate DISTRESS
That said, one of the goals of EMDR is to increase your zone of tolerance for handling difficult emotions, so that you don’t feel so triggered or overwhelmed by life. Part of how we achieve that is by practicing toggling back and forth between the difficult emotions and the calming strategies you will learn. Through the experience of increasing trust with your therapist, the relief you begin to feel from the reprocessing work itself, and the experience of being able to stretch briefly into negative emotions and then come back to center, your ability to handle distress will grow stronger. You’ll be able to trust more and more strongly that “I can feel sad / angry / scared, and still know that I am safe right here, today.” In other words, we’re re-training your nervous system to be able to re-establish a sense of safety instead of a constant experience of being triggered and under threat.
How Do People Feel During EMDR?
This varies quite a bit from person to person. Some people cry during EMDR reprocessing sessions. Some people feel angry, or numb, or empty. Sometimes people even laugh as they come to new insights. There is no “right way” to feel during EMDR - we are just following and noticing together where your mind takes you during the process, and your therapist is there to gently direct as needed.
How Quickly does EMDR Start to Work?
Some topics can be fully resolved in just a single session of EMDR, but it’s more common for the process to take multiple sessions per issue. For traumas that were recurring, and are therefore connected to many different memory networks in the brain (such as a history of childhood abuse), it will of course take a greater number of sessions to resolve the distress associated with those memories.
That said, many people begin to experience some degree of relief starting right from the first session of reprocessing, and your brain continues to process the material on its own for 2-4 days following your session, so by the time you come back in for your next session, you may have progressed even beyond where you left off with your therapist.
Compared with traditional talk therapy, the results people experience with EMDR often happen within a matter of weeks to months (rather than months to years).
How Do You Feel After an EMDR Session?
The most common thing people report feeling after an EMDR session is “tired but good.” Each session will end with some sort of calming practice or closure so that you feel composed and ready to go back out into your day.
It’s common to feel wiped out after an EMDR session, and many people prefer to schedule sessions for a time of day when they don’t have to rush off to another commitment and can spend some time reflecting and winding down afterwards.
Others might leave a session feeling invigorated or like they have a renewed sense of clarity and confidence. Much of it depends on what we are working on that day, and whether we’re in the middle of reprocessing difficult material, or we are “adding in” some confidence-building material.
It is certainly possible to feel “worse before you feel better” as you’re starting out with EMDR, and this is normal. After all, we’re reopening some topics or memories you’ve worked hard not to think about, which could leave you feeling more emotionally vulnerable or raw following an EMDR session. You’ll be encouraged to take note of anything unusual or concerning that you might experience between sessions and let your therapist know, which will help provide good information about the way your brain is processing and how the therapist can best structure your treatment.
What is the Goal of EMDR Therapy?
Simply put, the primary goal of EMDR is stop old wounds from running your life. Here are some of many things that can also result from EMDR:
The elimination or partial reduction of physical or emotional symptoms related to trauma (e.g., nightmares, OCD compulsions, chronic pain)
The ability to cope more effectively with future stresses and challenges
Greater emotional maturity and flexibility
The ability to be more emotionally present, available, and connected to others in satisfying relationships
The ability to integrate and make meaning out of life experiences that were previously incomprehensible
A greater ability to self-advocate
A strengthened sense of one’s identity, agency, autonomy, safety, confidence, voice, and/or value as a person
Strength and resilience in future decision-making
Why I Love Doing EMDR Work as a Therapist
EMDR has brought relief and deep healing to my clients more rapidly and effectively than anything else I have seen. The beautiful thing about EMDR is that it can be so tailored to each individual, and can be paired with regular talk therapy, or done all on its own for a more intensive approach. And as opposed to talk therapy (which is very left-brain heavy work), EMDR focuses on the right brain, which is the less verbal, more intuitive, creative side. There are moments in this work where people come up with profound and poetic insights that talking alone would never have brought them to, and it’s amazing to see the human brain doing what it does best — pursuing its own healing.
If you’ like to learn more about EMDR and whether it could be a good fit for you, visit my Contact page and send me a message. I’d be happy to connect!
-Rachel
