What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychological therapy recommended by both the NHS and NICE. While it is primarily used to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), emerging evidence suggests it can also be highly effective for treating depression and other anxiety-related conditions, such as phobias.
To understand how EMDR works, let’s first look at PTSD…
When a person experiences a traumatic event—such as a car accident, assault, or a difficult birth—the mind may try to ‘block’ the traumatic memory in an effort to protect the individual from reliving the distressing details. However, this defense mechanism can prevent the memory from being processed in the same way as other, more neutral memories.
As a result, the memory of the traumatic event can feel vivid and distressing, even years after the event occurred. This unprocessed memory can lead to symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, or avoidance of reminders associated with the trauma, making daily life challenging.
How does EMDR work?
Your brain naturally has the ability to heal from trauma, but sometimes it requires assistance to process painful memories effectively. EMDR helps by using bilateral stimulation—stimulating both sides of the brain—to facilitate connections in the brain’s memory network, allowing blocked memories to be processed. This technique mimics the natural memory processing that occurs during REM sleep, but instead of being asleep, you stay awake while bilateral stimulation is provided through eye movements, tapping, or sounds. This process helps the brain ‘reprocess’ the traumatic memory.
What happens during EMDR therapy?
The therapy begins with several sessions focused on assessment, education about EMDR, and preparing you for memory processing. When processing starts, we’ll ask you to bring up a picture of the traumatic event you’re struggling with. While focusing on the image, we’ll guide you through eye movements or tapping. We’ll keep each set of stimulation brief, pausing often to check in with you and see how you’re feeling. Throughout this process, you may notice changes in how the memory feels or how you experience emotions in your body. Everyone’s processing experience is unique, and there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do it. We continue until the memory no longer feels as distressing, or it loses its sense of ‘nowness.’
If you’re interested in EMDR therapy or other trauma-focused work, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to book an assessment. Simply click the link below to connect.