EMDR Therapy

What is EMDR Therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR therapy includes a set of standardized protocols that incorporate elements from many different treatment approaches. Based on heavy, evidenced based research, EMDR is often faster and more effective than other forms of therapy because it identifies the root of the problem, rather than teaching you to cope with the symptoms.

What Kind Of Problems Does EMDR Therapy Treat?

Scientific research has established EMDR therapy as effective in the treatment of post-traumatic stress. Additionally, EMDR has shown significant improvement with the treatment of the following conditions:
  • Panic attacks
  • Complicated grief
  • Dissociative disorders
  • Disturbing memories
  • Phobias
  • Pain disorders
  • Performance anxiety
  • Stress reduction
  • Addictions
  • Sexual, Physical, and/or Psychological abuse
  • Body dysmorphic disorders
  • Personality Disorders

How Does EMDR Work?

When a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. Adverse experiences can become “frozen in time” and remembering a trauma may feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed. Such memories have a lasting, negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.

EMDR research suggests that the therapy has a direct effect on the way the brain processes information. Normal information processing is resumed, so following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer relives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to the present. You still remember what happened, but it is less upsetting or disturbing. EMDR therapy replicates what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Our brain makes interesting, creative connections when we dream. It brings together ideas we’d never think to combine in daily life. Therefore, EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.

What Does EMDR Therapy Look Like?

EMDR therapy looks different than most traditional talk-oriented therapies. Instead of focusing on behaviors and thoughts and relying on verbal-processing to “make sense” of the problem, EMDR therapy accesses more primitive parts of the brain where unprocessed memory is stored and enacts them in the here-and-now. Using eye-movements and other EMDR techniques, the experience is processed through the mind and the body.

Click here to learn more about what EMDR looks like.

What is bilateral stimulation?

Bilateral stimulation is a treatment element of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing), a revolutionary treatment which is based on the use of sensory stimulation to alter anxiety-provoking memories and responses. Based on EMDR, Anxiety Release works by stimulating the brain with bilateral stimulation, which captures attention processes and diverts emotional resources. Because this kind of stimuli appeal to areas of the brain involved in sensory processing, the same areas of the brain responsible for anxiety, change tends to happen more easily than some other methods. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation in to process information. Bilateral stimulation is a back and forth between the left and right side of your body. Like dreaming, bilateral stimulation allows your brain to make creative connections. From this process, negative experiences are placed into the context of your whole life. Because bilateral stimulation appeals to the unconscious, sensing part of the brain, there is no need for effortful thinking or struggling with feelings. In my practice I use tactile stimulation (buzzers that you hold in each hand) and eye-movements with adults and teens.

My approach to use EMDR with children is to weave play therapy and EMDR together as treatment methods, when appropriate. At any age, re-enactment in play and art will reveal more information about relationships, behaviors, why a child is being withdrawn, avoiding other children, struggling with sleep and eating disorders, anxiety, daydreaming/dissociation, impulsivities, nightmares, etc. When there is a major negative shift in a child’s behavior or attitude, they are signaling that something may be wrong or that something is bothering the child. A child’s troubled behavior can be an indication that the relationship that the child is experiencing with the world around them is too overwhelming for them to handle on their own.

During the process of play, the child will discover their unconscious strengths and potentials. Playing is a child’s work: children learn almost everything while playing. Children are generally not able to express their feelings or experiences the way adults do. Play becomes a therapeutic process to children as they give expression to their experiences and emotions.

Children who have developed ongoing problems such as nightmares, bedwetting, fear, anger, anxiety, behavior problems, depression, unwanted thoughts, phobias, hyper-arousal and exaggerated startle response can benefit from the combination of EMDR and play therapy. Children’s symptoms can be very subtle and their reactions to trauma is often delayed from six to eight weeks from the event.

EMDR is a revolutionizing therapy, used to help people dealing with crisis, also helpful in the treatment of the anxiety and low self-esteem associated with ADHD or other physiologically based disorders. EMDR and play therapy are non-drug therapies. Occasionally children will be referred for further evaluation or testing. EMDR can often help distinguish between symptoms that mimic ADHD but are the result of trauma or wrong thinking.

Client safety is the main priority with both play therapy and EMDR. Work begins with the establishment of a “safe place” which can be real or imaginary or a combination of the two where a client feels totally safe, secure and comfortable. Play therapy will continue until the child is able to establish a safe place, which will require rapport between the client (of any age) and the therapist. Combining EMDR and play therapy provides a plethora of possibilities to help you or your child overcome life’s difficulties. Together with parents, the therapist creates a treatment plan using specific targets to process in the EMDR parts of the session.