EMDR (Eye Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a powerful form of psychotherapy. It is used to reduce and sometimes completely resolve the negative effects that past events have on present experience. EMDR is used primarily to treat people who have suffered \u201cbig-T traumas,\u201d major events like rape or a car accident, or a series of related events, often in childhood, like sexual or physical abuse. Often these clients have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). EMDR is also used for those who have suffered \u201csmall-T traumas,\u201d events like bullying and parental neglect, which, while not so obviously traumatic, often leave ongoing distress and negatively affect people\u2019s reactions to others.<\/p>\n
I often use EMDR to treat clients who have come to me for help with big-T traumas<\/a> And I occasionally use EMDR to support my work with clients who are dealing with other issues, such as addiction<\/strong>, <\/b>anger<\/strong>, <\/b>depression<\/strong>, <\/b>or anxiety<\/strong>. These clients are often affected by big-T or small-T traumas. I also use EMDR to treat phobias<\/strong> and complicated grief<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I am trained in and practice EMDR 2.0. It is an enhanced form of EMDR that uses visual, auditory and kinesthetic tasks to break down emotionally-charged memories by taxing the brain’s working memory.<\/p>\n EMDR was created by Francine Shapiro approximately 30 years ago. While thinking about a disturbing subject, Shapiro, a psychologist, noticed that moving her eyes back and forth significantly reduced her distress. With colleagues she conducted clinical studies, formulated a treatment protocol involving eye movements (and other forms of bilateral stimulation), built an EMDR Institute, and 30 years later EMDR is one of just two treatment modalities recently recommended by the Word Health Organization for PTSD<\/strong> (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). http:\/\/www.who.int\/mediacentre\/news\/releases\/2013\/trauma_mental_health_20130806\/en\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n In a standard EMDR session, a client brings up a traumatic memory while the therapist has them follow something (a light or hand) moving back and forth. Focusing on the memory combined with the eye movement activates a vivid remembering and deep processing of the traumatic event. What was disturbing\u2013 the locked emotions, thoughts and body sensations linked to the event\u2014gradually becomes discharged, enabling the client to think of the event in a new way. The memory of the event now integrates with the more adaptive networks in the brain so the client can interpret the event more rationally and self-lovingly. Not only did I not deserve that beating from my step-father when I was eight but I was courageous in the quiet ways I tried to resist him.<\/p>\n It is not known for certain why EMDR works the way it does in unlocking locked reactions in the brain, but it is likely that its therapeutic effect mirrors the effect we experience from R.E.M. sleep. This deep rejuvenating sleep is named for the rapid eye movements that occur during it. It has been scientifically demonstrated that the eye movements in EMDR and REM sleep both facilitate better integration of an event into the brain\u2019s existing bank of knowledge and experience, \u201cincreasing episodic association, decreasing physiological arousal, and increasing the recognition of truthful information\u201d. http:\/\/consults.blogs.nytimes.com\/2012\/03\/02\/the-evidence-on-e-m-d-r\/<\/a> (page 3). If we understand an event more contextually we\u2019re better able to respond and adapt to it rather than simply react to it.<\/p>\n EMDR is ideally suited to treat people suffering from big- T traumas because a big-T trauma is precisely the kind of event, overwhelming and memorable, that the brain does not fully process. An event like a car accident or a rape disrupts normal brain processes, preventing the brain from integrating the event into its store of information. Instead the memory of the event, including the body\u2019s disturbed reaction to it at the time, becomes locked in the brain, ready to be re-triggered by anything that \u201creminds\u201d it of the event. The eye movements work to discharge this locked memory. The result: the remembered event, no longer triggering disturbance (or now triggering less disturbance), is integrated into the brain\u2019s store of information. I know I can drive safely through this intersection now because I know there\u2019s no good reason to think I\u2019ll get hit again.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, EMDR can also be helpful in working through what is sometimes called small- T traumas: these include sibling or parental mistreatment, grief, bullying, humiliation and alienation. While these events generally don\u2019t have the same highly charged after-effects that big-T traumas do, they can, if left unprocessed, generate ongoing disturbance, particularly if these events were recurring in childhood.<\/p>\n A client, for instance, who regularly reacts angrily to his mother, can, through processing his early negative experiences with her, reduce his reactivity not only to her but also to those who similarly provoke him.<\/p>\nDevelopment of EMDR<\/h2>\n
How is it done and What Happens in the Session?<\/h2>\n
Why does it Work?<\/h2>\n
EMDR on small-T Traumas<\/h2>\n
Feeling State Addiction Protocol<\/h2>\n