EMDR Can Help Resolve Your Trauma—Here's How

Have you grappled with the painful memories of your childhood? Do you struggle with the fallout of a disaster? Are you wrestling with the hurt of relationship betrayal? You are not alone.

Why has it been so difficult to cope? In a word: trauma. 

Traumatic experiences change your perceptions and impact your brain's neural networks. Your mind and body go into a protective fight-or-flight mode. Your ability to think on a higher level is compromised.

All of this is normal and helps you during a crisis. Yet, it doesn't do much for storing memories accurately. You can become prone to flashes of the trauma in your dreams and thoughts. You may live with physical discomfort. Just discussing it may trigger you. You may reach a point where you avoid dealing with the trauma at all.

Yet, your brain wants to heal, and fortunately, treatment is possible. There is a powerful and effective way to cope and recover from trauma. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) offers such healing.

How Can EMDR Help?

Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a therapeutic approach that triggers the brain’s natural ability to reprocess the disturbing memories of a trauma. EMDR can accomplish this via:

• Alternating pulses

• Side-to-side eye movements

• Finger and hand movements or tapping

This bilateral approach relies less on rehashing the past verbally and more on easing your brain into reprocessing the memory in a way that the stored up sensory trauma in your body can be filed away as a piece of your past, not an alarm that is needed and continually triggers in your present.

EMDR therapy employs eight phases of treatment. You will work with your therapist to identify the difficult or traumatic memory and the image that represents the worst part of that for you. You will then process that memory by tracking the therapist’s hand movements or using hand pulsers. You would be prompted to recall one of your traumatic memories while tracking the therapist's movement or an object back and forth. The aim is to reprocess the memory, and the feelings associated with it during the activity. 

In short, this eye movement/memory recall approach interrupts the old anxiety response. Unhelpful reactivity can be resolved and replaced with calming messages. As you progress, you feel less negativity and more in control of your response.

Encouraging research indicates that the vast majority of people managing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience relief after just three EMDR sessions. Still, there are a couple of important points to keep in mind:

EMDR will not make you forget your trauma.

This therapy isn't a form of hypnosis or an avoidance technique. Think of it, instead, as a means of distancing yourself from the trauma, for the sake of proper perspective. You recall the experience without repeatedly being trapped in the intensity of it. You remain in control at all times during the sessions.

EMDR will help you restore function and control.

When trauma-related triggers, images, and sensations take hold, day-to-day life is impaired. EMDR can restore a sense of self-control and confidence.

For instance, did your trauma lead you to believe that you were unlovable? Do you assume you are safer leading an isolated life? Reprocessing memories and your point of view via EMDR may provide deeper understanding about the trauma and the people involved.

From there, your ideas regarding self-image and relationships can expand and heal. Your ability to trust yourself and others can heal as well. EMDR can help you move on, choosing connections without the burden of past harm weighing on you.

Finally...

You don't have to go on suffering. You deserve to be free from the pain of your past. EMDR is a path out of the pain and fog of the past. When you are ready to be unstuck - reach out to our team of highly sensitive and trained therapists.

We are here to support you. Together, we can finally help you heal and move toward the full and rewarding life you want.