EMD-WHAT? ALL ABOUT EMDR
What is EMDR?
More and more people have been hearing word of a type of therapy that can help people process trauma - and maybe you’ve even heard whispers about lights, buzzers, or beeps being involved. EMDR is an intriguing therapy modality that can sound a bit strange, but has proven highly effective for a variety of mental health symptoms. It is a tool available to Parent & Family Wellness Center clients, so we wanted to explain what it's all about!
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing and is an evidence-based therapeutic modality developed in the 1980s by psychologist Francine Shapiro. No, it is not a form of hypnosis, and no, you don’t even have to do anything weird with your eyes!
EMDR is hailed as a wildly effective trauma therapy, and it is! However, it can also be used for transforming a host of other distressing behaviors, patterns, belief systems, and/or mental health symptoms and diagnoses. This is because EMDR is a memory-network oriented approach that works to rewire maladaptively stored memories to help us gain sovereignty over triggers, behaviors, and beliefs that are no longer serving us. Let me explain.
Our memories (including perceptions, attitudes, experiences, and behaviors) are stored in memory networks in our brains. You can think of these memory networks as file cabinets. Our brains are constantly trying to make sense of our world by “filing away” our experiences and attaching beliefs and behaviors to them that are aimed at protecting us. When an adverse experience causes too much overwhelm or disruption to our system, the experience is maladaptively stored. This means it does not get “filed away” neatly like other memories; instead it gets stuck. This leaves the memory subject to constant firing and misfiring, causing our nervous system to respond accordingly.
Over time, other experiences can wire into these maladaptively stored memories, creating entire networks that fire together when triggered.
Here’s an example:
You’re in first grade and a group of students pushes you off the playground and tells you you can’t play with them. In hindsight, we know these kids are bullies and this experience does not say anything about your worth, but this experience may have been deeply shaming and dysregulating (distressing) for your 6 year-old self. The feeling of shame may have been so great that it overwhelmed your system, inhibiting your brain’s ability to “file it away.” The experience may have also translated to one of the following belief systems about yourself:
“I don't belong,” “I’m unlovable,” or “it’s not safe for me to play/make friends/etc.”
As you grow older, any experience or emotion that feels similar to this original experience in any way, gets ”wired” into the same memory network and subconsciously upholds this feeling of shame and this belief system of “I don’t belong” as an attempt to protect you from re-experiencing such a terrible experience. Now, you may notice an overwhelming sense of anxiety at present day triggers such as joining a new team at the office, or attending a social gathering. This is because these experiences are triggering an entire network of shame feelings, “I don’t belong” belief systems, and fight or flight nervous system responses that have been wiring together since you were 6 years old.
A rhyme I like to use is, “what wires together, fires together.” This is why when we experience a present-day trigger, we can have a whole-body reaction that feels much larger than the present- day experience. It’s historical, and it’s wired into an entire network of other experiences that have shaped our nervous system responses, our protective coping behaviors, and our belief systems.
Science tells us that the way we store, remember, and associate our experiences is much more important than what actually may have happened or didn’t happen. This is why we can also use EMDR for preverbal memories, birth or infant trauma, or for experiences that feel “blocked” from our memory.
So how does EMDR do all this?
EMDR utilizes bilateral stimulation (stimulating both hemispheres of the brain), to process unresolved traumatic or adverse memories causing unwanted symptoms, responses, and distress in our daily lives. Bilateral stimulation can take place in the form of eye movement, self-tapping, or vibrating buzzers used in the office. Scientists think this works by replicating the same process that takes place in our brains during REM sleep. During REM sleep, our eyes move rapidly back and forth as our brains process our daily stressors. By manually recreating this process, EMDR helps us to produce spontaneous insights, clarity, and feelings of relief.
EMDR can seem a bit esoteric, and does take a bit of “trusting the process.” But it is also quite manualized, following a specific treatment protocol that is extremely evidence-backed, with thousands of studies to credit its effectiveness.
What can I expect if I decide to start EMDR?
EMDR is completed in phases, and I would argue that the most important phase is the preparation phase. Especially when working with trauma, it is so important to go slowly to avoid overwhelm or the potential for re-traumatization. This means that before you even start processing present day triggers and past experiences, you’ll first be laying a strong foundation of safety by working together to regulate your nervous system. For those who are worried about revisiting a traumatic experience, it can be relieving to know that in EMDR, your therapist should never jump right into the traumatic experience and that your therapist will always start with resourcing and regulating your nervous system. This often looks like learning exercises and tools that help your nervous system feel safe and calm, and working in sessions to map-out and organize your experiences, resources, and supports.
Once you’re ready to start reprocessing your experiences, we’ll start by taking a look at present-day triggers for a specific issue and then we’ll work together to discover memories or experiences that may be associated with that issue. We’ll work together to figure out what belief systems, coping behaviors, and stuck emotions are tied to that experience. Then, utilizing bilateral stimulation, we’ll manually reprocess this memory to free it from these stuck emotions, beliefs, and behaviors.
The entire process can take several sessions and up to a few months to complete. Clients are usually amazed at the insights they discover that they never had access to in other forms of therapy, and at how effective EMDR is for completely reorganizing the way they feel about the original experience. Many people walk away from EMDR feeling like it was life changing.
If you’re curious about EMDR therapy, email info@parentfamilywellness.com to schedule an appointment to learn more.
This article was written by Maggie Saltiel, LCSW. Maggie is a psychotherapist at the Parent & Family Wellness Center specializing in perinatal mental health and trauma healing. She is trained in EMDR therapy.