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EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing has been demonstrated to be more effective and efficient in resolving trauma compared with ANY other psychological or psychiatric treatment, including medication. What is Trauma A traumatic event is any experience which is associated with strong negative emotions and perception of self associated to the event. Traumatic events can be caused by external occurrences such as an assault, car accident, violence/abuse; and there can be internally painful thoughts/emotional experiences such as public ridicule, performing badly in front of one’s peers, critical put downs by parents or others, and any other form of emotional abuse. An event can be termed “traumatic”, whenever it can be associated with a high level of emotional distress. The brain treats external and internal traumatic stress in exactly the same way. The emotions and bodily reactions created at the time of the traumatic event are associated with chemicals in the nervous system, including adrenaline, and these cause the brain to store or encode the traumatic experience in a manner different from an everyday event, which doesn’t carry a strong emotional charge. |
At 4thought we help people 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.
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There is an old African proverb that says,
“You can outrun the lion that is chasing you. You cannot outrun the lion in your head.” Trauma memories are like lions in your head. |
A traumatic event consists of three components:
the sensory memory, the emotional memory, and its meaning.
The sensory memory is stored in the sensory cortex of the brain, where the details of sight, sound, smell, etc. are encoded. Some aspects of traumatic memories are recalled with vividness, and a sense of being present (“I remember it just like it was yesterday”). Non-traumatic memories are recalled with a clear sense of being in the past. Traumatic memories are experienced as flashbacks, disturbing dreams, or a sudden sense of re-living the event.
The emotional memory is often called the “body memory”, as activation of this part of the trauma memory reactivates the “body sensations” associated with the event. The emotional / bodily component 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 of the event, or avoid possible reminders of the event. 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.
Some time after the trauma occurs the third component is formed in yet another part of the brain, the prefrontal lobes. This third component of the traumatic memory is the meaning that the event has for the person. These are not the thoughts we had at the time of the trauma, it is the meaning that that event has afterwards. This is then applied to other situations subsequent to the traumatic event, triggering emotional and behavioural reactions long after the original traumatic event.
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How does EMDR work?
During EMDR the client is guided to deliberately bring into conscious awareness the sensory memory, their thoughts, and the 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 accompany 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. The client does not try to change any aspect of the memory, and 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. Further sets of eye movement follow. 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 a number of sessions to fully resolve them. |