Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
EMDR is a highly effective and efficient type of psychotherapy that helps people work through and process disturbing thoughts, feelings, and memories. It is commonly used in the treatment of Panic Attacks, Post-traumatic Stress, and Phobias. It is one of the most significant breakthroughs in the treatment of anxiety-related problems.
EMDR is based on the idea that emotional pain and trauma require time to heal the same way physical pain and trauma do. In situations where our information processing system is blocked or imbalanced, it is much harder for our emotional wounds to heal which often leads to intense psychological suffering. EMDR works to activate our natural healing processes, remove these blocks, and encourage healing.
EMDR is based on the idea that emotional pain and trauma require time to heal the same way physical pain and trauma do. In situations where our information processing system is blocked or imbalanced, it is much harder for our emotional wounds to heal which often leads to intense psychological suffering. EMDR works to activate our natural healing processes, remove these blocks, and encourage healing.
How does EMDR work?
During EMDR, the client is guided to deliberately bring into conscious awareness, the sensory memory, thoughts, and accompanying emotions and bodily sensations. Through the therapeutic process, clients are given tools and foundations to observe and feel safe to connect and experience the emotions and body sensations that accompanying the recall of a distressing memory and associated thoughts.
Then, by following the moving fingers of the therapist, the client's eyes move rapidly for a brief period, around 30 seconds. This produces a pattern of electrical activity in the brain which causes the stored trauma memory to quickly change. During the eye movement, the therapist does not talk or offer suggestions, and the client does not try to change any aspect of the memory. Instead, the client is asked to just notice the experience. At the end of each set of eye movements, the client reports back their present experience and what they are observing. It may be that the sensory memory becomes less detailed or less vivid, and clients often report that the memory has become quite distant. This process is repeated.
Once the trauma memory no longer triggers feelings of distress, the client is asked to associate a more useful thought to the now, more distant trauma memory, and further sets of eye movements follow. The EMDR process is complete when the new perspective feels true, even when the old memory is recalled. This entire process may take as little as ten minutes, or as long as a full session. Where there are several different experiences underlying the client's difficulties, it may take several sessions to fully resolve them.
During EMDR, the client is guided to deliberately bring into conscious awareness, the sensory memory, thoughts, and accompanying emotions and bodily sensations. Through the therapeutic process, clients are given tools and foundations to observe and feel safe to connect and experience the emotions and body sensations that accompanying the recall of a distressing memory and associated thoughts.
Then, by following the moving fingers of the therapist, the client's eyes move rapidly for a brief period, around 30 seconds. This produces a pattern of electrical activity in the brain which causes the stored trauma memory to quickly change. During the eye movement, the therapist does not talk or offer suggestions, and the client does not try to change any aspect of the memory. Instead, the client is asked to just notice the experience. At the end of each set of eye movements, the client reports back their present experience and what they are observing. It may be that the sensory memory becomes less detailed or less vivid, and clients often report that the memory has become quite distant. This process is repeated.
Once the trauma memory no longer triggers feelings of distress, the client is asked to associate a more useful thought to the now, more distant trauma memory, and further sets of eye movements follow. The EMDR process is complete when the new perspective feels true, even when the old memory is recalled. This entire process may take as little as ten minutes, or as long as a full session. Where there are several different experiences underlying the client's difficulties, it may take several sessions to fully resolve them.
What is trauma?
A traumatic event is an experience which is associated with strong negative emotions and perceptions of self and high levels of overall emotional distress. Such events can be caused by assault, car accident, violence, or abuse, and internally painful thoughts and emotional experience can result, such as public ridicule, poor performance, criticism, and emotional abuse. After a traumatic experience, the body releases chemicals such as adrenaline, that cause the brain to store or encode the experience differently to everyday events that do not carry a strong emotional charge.
A traumatic event is an experience which is associated with strong negative emotions and perceptions of self and high levels of overall emotional distress. Such events can be caused by assault, car accident, violence, or abuse, and internally painful thoughts and emotional experience can result, such as public ridicule, poor performance, criticism, and emotional abuse. After a traumatic experience, the body releases chemicals such as adrenaline, that cause the brain to store or encode the experience differently to everyday events that do not carry a strong emotional charge.
At 4thought psychology, we help clients resolve trauma by creating a safe environment in which the experience of the traumatic event can be shared, and its meaning explored. Talking about the trauma can be difficult initially, if the person often has tried to avoid the trauma memory. While avoidance does help in the short-term, much research has shown that it can make the avoided memory even more distressing. In the end, avoidance strategies are not helpful, and this has long been recognised.
A traumatic event consists of three components:
1. Sensory Memory
The sensory memory is stored in the sensory cortex of the brain where details of sight, sounds, smell, touch, and hearing are encoded. Some aspects of traumatic memories are recalled with vividness, and a sense of being present ("I remember it like it was yesterday, or like it is happening right now"). Non-traumatic memories are recalled with a clear sense of being in the past, however traumatic memories are experienced as flashbacks, disturbing dreams, or a sudden sense of re-living the event.
2. Emotional Memory
The emotional memory is often called the "body memory", as activation of this part of the trauma memory reactivates body sensations associated with the event. The emotional/bodily components of the event are activated in a different area of the brain known as the amygdala, which has been referred to as the "emotional brain". Recalling the sensory memory generally reactivates the emotional memory which is why many people try to avoid talking about the event, or any possible reminders of the trauma. A person may experience a general sense of over arousal in the form of increased irritability, sleep disturbance, concentration difficulties, being easily startled, and being on guard. The person's mind may try to distance the emotional component of a traumatic memory by a process called "dissociation", which may be experienced as a sense of emotional numbness.
3. Meaning
Some time after the trauma occurs, the third component is formed in the prefrontal lobe of the brain. This is the meaning that the individual took from the event. These are not the thoughts at the time of the trauma, but the meaning of the event in hindsight. This is then applied to other subsequent situations and can trigger emotional and behavioural reactions long after the original traumatic event.
1. Sensory Memory
The sensory memory is stored in the sensory cortex of the brain where details of sight, sounds, smell, touch, and hearing are encoded. Some aspects of traumatic memories are recalled with vividness, and a sense of being present ("I remember it like it was yesterday, or like it is happening right now"). Non-traumatic memories are recalled with a clear sense of being in the past, however traumatic memories are experienced as flashbacks, disturbing dreams, or a sudden sense of re-living the event.
2. Emotional Memory
The emotional memory is often called the "body memory", as activation of this part of the trauma memory reactivates body sensations associated with the event. The emotional/bodily components of the event are activated in a different area of the brain known as the amygdala, which has been referred to as the "emotional brain". Recalling the sensory memory generally reactivates the emotional memory which is why many people try to avoid talking about the event, or any possible reminders of the trauma. A person may experience a general sense of over arousal in the form of increased irritability, sleep disturbance, concentration difficulties, being easily startled, and being on guard. The person's mind may try to distance the emotional component of a traumatic memory by a process called "dissociation", which may be experienced as a sense of emotional numbness.
3. Meaning
Some time after the trauma occurs, the third component is formed in the prefrontal lobe of the brain. This is the meaning that the individual took from the event. These are not the thoughts at the time of the trauma, but the meaning of the event in hindsight. This is then applied to other subsequent situations and can trigger emotional and behavioural reactions long after the original traumatic event.