EMDR ( Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing )was
discovered by chance in the late 80’s by a psychologist named Francine
Shapiro, she is the originator and developer of EMDR.
- EMDR is now a well developed therapeutic method which consists of an
8 phase approach that uses standard procedures, protocols and
techniques. - It seems to have the capacity to rewire and restructure the brain.
- EMDR is an accelerated treatment
- It is now so well researched the APA (American Psychiatric Association)
recommends it as an effective treatment for trauma.
What does EDMR treat?
Used for brief /short term treatment of Big T trauma ( one event trauma) and for longer term treatment with complex presentations like attachment trauma. It treats PTSD but also depression, anxiety, phobias, complicated grief, relationship issues, sleep issues, low self esteem, eating disorders, substance use, personality disorders etc.
Benefits of EDMR
- Decreases in distress, changes in belief system.
- Builds resilience
- Creates a new sense of mastery and a new way of being in the world,
- With EMDR we are not just treating symptoms, but treating problems
and the root cause of problems. It is deeply curative, and it creates deep
and lasting healing and transformation.
Definition of Trauma: When trauma happens, our nervous system is
overwhelmed and blocks our brain’s natural ability to process disturbing
events. Often when something traumatic happens, it seems to get locked in
the brain with the original negative images, sounds, thoughts, feelings, and
so on. It is stored in a disturbing, distressing form. It is frozen in time.
These memories are inadequately processed and mal-adaptively stored.
Since the experience is locked in our brain and STILL unprocessed, it
continues to be triggered whenever a reminder comes up in present day
life. These locked memories can be the basis for a lot of discomfort and
negative emotions—such as fear and helplessness—that people can’t
seem to control. When people get triggered in present day life, there is
often something historical that is coming up and once again taking over
their nervous system. When something in the present reminds someone of
an earlier traumatic event in some way, they are triggered and suddenly
thrown out of present time and into trauma time.
How does EMDR work?
The key to the power of EMDR is Bilateral Stimulation: stimulating the
right and left brain back and forth. It can be done by holding tappers in your
hand with alternating tapping, tapping shoulders with one’s hands or using
eye movement going from right to left repeatedly for a certain amount of
time.
We know that somehow the bilateral stimulation we use in EMDR has a
way of jumpstarting an innate processing system that is blocked with
trauma. It allows the inner healing ability in our brain to process the trauma
for the first time.
