EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

It sounds intense, and it is—but it works. This type of therapy is known for helping people with PTSD and is also beneficial for those, like me, with less severe anxiety or trauma. It helps declutter your experiences and allows your brain to make clearer connections. While it can be difficult to confront your own role in your life, it is incredibly freeing once you do.

Ok, Dolly- What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a special kind of talk therapy that helps people feel better when they remember something that was traumatic in their life. This does not exclude little traumas (e.g. someone made a rude comment). All types of trauma have a place in EMDR therapy. The amount of time it takes to process these traumas is dependant on the intensity of the trauma and how you experience today.

My therapist compared trauma to a stack of photos in our mind. We like looking at happy or important photos, but unhandled traumas keep pushing themselves to the top, making us face them at inconvenient times. EMDR helps keep those traumatic photos in their place so we only see them when we choose to. It also removes the physical pain from the memory, making it less upsetting.

It doesn’t make you forget the trauma, but it does help you control when and how you recall it, so you can handle it appropriately even if it comes up unexpectedly.

In order to accomplish this, you might follow a light or a finger moving back and forth with your eyes while you think about the bad thing that happened. It’s a bit like watching a tennis match. This helps your brain to work through the bad memory in a new way, so it doesn’t bother you as much.

What to Expect in EMDR Therapy

There are typically 8 steps followed during EMDR Therapy. It is an ongoing form of care and each trauma will go through some form of the following:

1. History-Taking: The therapist talks with you to understand your problems and figure out what bad memories or feelings you need help with.
2. Preparation: The therapist explains how EMDR works and teaches you ways to feel safe and calm, like deep breathing or thinking of a happy place.
3. Assessment: You and the therapist choose a specific bad memory to work on. You talk about the memory and how it makes you feel in your body and mind.
4. Desensitization: This is where the magic happens! You think about the bad memory while following the therapist’s moving finger, a light, or listening to sounds that go back and forth. This helps your brain process the memory.
5. Installation: After the bad memory feels less upsetting, the therapist helps you focus on a positive thought or belief about yourself, like “I am strong” or “I am safe.”
6. Body Scan: You think about the bad memory and see if you still feel any discomfort in your body. If you do, the therapist helps you process that until it goes away.
7. Closure: At the end of each session, the therapist makes sure you feel calm and safe before you leave. They might use some of the calming techniques you learned earlier.
8. Reevaluation: In the next session, the therapist checks to see how you’re feeling about the memory you worked on before and decides if more work is needed or if it’s time to move on to another memory.

Have you ever tried EMDR therapy? What did you think?