EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a powerful and specialized form of therapy. It is one of the few things I have seen as a counselor that actually brings healing. Many times counseling focuses on ways to cope with a painful situation or experience, or ways to distract attention from it. Those are very important, however, people are often still left with the pain and memories. EMDR focuses on processing through the the memories in a fast, non-traumatic way that allows people to leave it in the past and move on.
What kind of things does EMDR help with?
Originally, EMDR focused on treating people struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), such as sexual abuse victims and Vietnam Vets. It was so successful and widely researched that the World Health Organization now recommends it as one of only two forms of therapy to treat PTSD. Beyond that, however, EMDR has also had great success with depression, anxiety, and numerous other issues where people feel stuck.
How does it work?
EMDR is unique and effective because it uses the brain’s natural processing system. The theory behind it has to do with REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Every day we take in the world around us. Each night, when we hit REM sleep, our eyes move back and forth quickly. This stimulates both sides of the brain back and forth (also called Bilateral Stimulation or BLS) which doctors believe results in the brain processing through the memories of the day. When we wake up, we can still recall the previous day, but it is not as vivid or perhaps raw.
Putting that aside for a moment, when we experience overwhelming events – trauma or otherwise – our brain is often not able to take it all in. The various parts of memory (what we see, hear, feel, smell, etc.) get fragmented and can not come together as a full memory to be processed. As a result, the memory gets stuck. These are the memories that remain raw, we keep replaying in our mind, or just can not seem to move past. This is where EMDR comes in.
EMDR essentially focuses on the stuck memory, then mimics REM sleep with the back and forth brain movement. This can be done is different ways, such as eye movement, headphones with alternating beeps, or buzzers held in the hands with alternating buzzing. Through this focused process, the memory is able to come together and process through. This transforms it to a memory of the past, rather than pain or agitation in the present.
Personal and Professional Recommendation
To be able to provide EMDR to clients, I went through an intense training process. Part of that process was practice on each other. Through that, I experienced EMDR and the best way I can describe it is that I felt emotionally cleansed at the end. As a result, I can say as both a counselor who sees clients find freedom through EMDR, and one who has experienced it first hand that this is a very powerful and exciting form of therapy.
Photo by jinterwas CC BY 2.0.
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Published in the Tri-City TRIBUNE (Cozad, Nebraska) on March 26, 2015.
