What is EMDR and How It Helps Trauma & Mental Health
/By Concentric Counselor and EMDR Trained Therapist Bailey Amis, LPC
The Uber you’re in turns onto the highway and you freeze. Your body feels tense, you notice in your shoulders clench up and a tightness in your chest. Your heart rate picks up and you begin to sweat. You can almost see the car wreck you were in three months ago. It’s like it’s happening all over again, and you can feel the fear from that moment. You continue to brace for impact, but it never comes. You arrive at your destination safely, but it takes hours for the tension and fear to fade. You wonder, will I ever be able to ride comfortably in a car again?
The experience described above is a trauma response. A trigger (being in a car and getting on the highway) is communicating to the body and brain that the person is in danger. The mind thinks it is experiencing the traumatic event in the here-and-now and responds accordingly causing your body to tense up and prepare for impact. These physical reactions trigger the emotions that were felt during the original car wreck. Even though nothing has happened during this car ride the body and brain aren’t getting the message that everything is okay. The brain is stuck in the traumatic experience. This can feel hopeless--but it’s not.
What Is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Developed in 1989 by Francine Shapiro, is a psychotherapy treatment designed to alleviate distress associated with traumatic memories. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to access and process traumatic memories and other adverse life experiences. Through this processing, the brain synthesizes the experience and distress levels lower.
Reorganizing your brain’s “filing cabinet”
Imagine the brain’s memory network like a long row of filing cabinets. A typical, non-traumatic, memory gets stored nicely and neatly in the cabinets. We can “pull up” the memory (or file) and our brains and bodies know it is in the past, even if it isn’t a pleasant memory. When we experience trauma, the memory doesn’t get stored quite right. Imagine that rather than being filed nicely, the memory is crumpled up and thrown on top of the cabinet. Instead of our brain having to sift through the past to think about the memory, it is already right there. Anytime there is a trigger, the memory is too easily accessible, and our brain gets confused thinking that we are still experiencing the traumatic event every single time we remember it.
EMDR processing helps the brain learn that the memory is in the past. Once processed, although we may still have an emotional reaction to that memory, our body and brain understand that it was in the past and we don’t have the physical reaction, negative thoughts, or images related to the memory anymore. The memory has now been filed neatly in the file cabinet. The processing greatly reduces or eliminates our responses to triggers, allowing for more freedom of movement through the world without worry of encountering a trigger and having a trauma response.
Limitless Healing Possibilities
A common misconception is that EMDR is only effective for one-time traumatic events. Although it is highly effective for these types of traumas, EMDR’s effectiveness is far reaching and growing often as clinicians innovate new ways to use this treatment. EMDR has been proven effective for one-time traumatic events, complex trauma, eating disorders, anxiety, addictions, chronic pain, panic attacks, phobias, and more.
What to Expect During EMDR Sessions
Every client is different, therefore every EMDR session is going to look a little different, however there are a few key pieces to the process that most EMDR sessions will have.
EMDR is structured as three-pronged, focusing on the past, present, and future. A clinician will take a thorough history of the presenting issue. For a one-time trauma or specific phobia with a direct cause this could take a few minutes, whereas for complex trauma or addictions, this could be a multi-session process. The clinician will ask about how this issue presented in the past and may ask questions such as “When is the first time you remember feeling scared?”. They will then assess how the issue affects the client in the present day. Finally, they will assess how this issue affects the client in the future or what worries the client may have about how this issue may affect them.
The EMDR clinician will implement resourcing at the beginning of treatment and will call back to these skills throughout the process. Resourcing is similar to the idea of “coping skills” and is essentially creating a few safe spaces in the brain for the client to have on hand if they feel overwhelmed. An example is creating a “safe calm place” where the client feels neutral, calm, and comfortable. This is done through guided imagery and bilateral stimulation (BLS).
The clinician will facilitate EMDR processing using bilateral stimulation (BLS). BLS is the bread and butter of EMDR. It is what makes the brain put in the work to heal itself. BLS activates the client’s information processing system and taxes the working memory, allowing new, healthier, associations to form with the trauma memory. There are endless ways to get our brains working using BLS but the most common are following the clinician’s fingers with the eyes, following lights with the eyes, using “buzzers” that rapidly switch from hand to hand, and tapping the hands in a rhythmic motion. As the client shares how the memory affects them and the negative belief associated with the memory, such as “I am not safe”, the clinician will walk them through sets of BLS and will ask them to report what they are noticing.
Experiencing Life Without Triggers
Let’s revisit that car ride-the one that brought up the old memories of your car wreck like it was happening in the here-and-now. Imagine that you attend EMDR sessions and process the memory of the wreck. Your therapist walks you through the memory, helps you identify thoughts, images, and body sensations related to the memory, and uses BLS to facilitate processing. After a few sessions you reflect on how differently you feel when riding in a car. You decide to catch an Uber home from your session. You sit calmly in the car and as the driver turns onto the highway you notice that your body does not tense up, your heart rate remains steady, and no disturbing images come to mind. You can remember that you had a car wreck of course, but you tell yourself you are safe now and you believe that you are safe.
There is so much more to the complex world of EMDR, and every clinician and client will have different needs during the process. Finding a clinician that you feel comfortable and safe with will create space for meaningful and effective EMDR work together.
A MESSAGE FROM CONCENTRIC: We recognize various acts of violence, including gun violence range from one victim to multiple people, occur on a daily basis in certain communities (especially within certain parts of Chicago), and within homes and public places, such as schools and venues. We recognize all of these acts are traumatic and we want nothing more than for help and change to take place on various levels. EMDR is one of the many therapeutic tools and interventions that can help reduce the effects of traumatic responses.
For those who were deeply impacted by the devastating and horrific violence at The Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, please know our sympathies and condolences are with you. We understand the impact of trauma and we truly hope all of you are able to obtain support from loved ones, community resources, and mental health providers.
For more information on EMDR therapy, please visit:
https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/
https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/treatments/eye-movement-reprocessing