Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
– EMDR –
What?
EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy approach. It is less about talking and focuses more on the concept that our body keeps the score. The mind can often heal itself naturally, in the same way as the body does. Much of this natural coping mechanism occurs during sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Sleep is often the first thing to be disturbed when mentally and physically unwell. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) utilises this natural process.
For?
EMDR is a treatment for:
PTSD and complex trauma
anxiety and panic attacks
depression
stress
phobias
eating disorders
sleep problems
complicated grief
body dysmorphic disorders
addictions
self-esteem and performance anxiety
long-term conditions and pain
How?
Your therapist will move their fingers back and forth in front of your face, tap or use technology to create bilateral stimulation (through touch or sound). You will call to mind a disturbing issue or event and talk about what was seen, felt, heard, thought, and what beliefs and distress are currently held about that event. The therapist facilitates the directional movement of the eyes or other dual attention stimulation of the brain, while you focus on the disturbing material, noticing whatever comes to mind without making any effort to control direction or content. This dual attention activates natural information processing and helps to move memories to adaptive resolution. Each person will process information uniquely, based on personal experiences and values.
Where?
EMDR requires face-to-face therapy. Smart CBT+’s therapy cabins are the perfect location to try this treatment. It is also available online, but this requires a strong internet connection.
The psychology
When you are traumatised by an overwhelming event or by being repeatedly subjected to distress, your natural coping mechanism (processing information and experiences) becomes overloaded. Disturbing experiences (memories and feelings) remain frozen in your limbic brain ‘unprocessed’ in a ‘raw’ and emotional form, rather than in a verbal ‘story in our long-term memory bank. Past painful feelings can be continually triggered in the present.
EMDR helps create the connections between your brain’s memory networks, enabling your brain to process the traumatic memory in a very natural way. Bringing disturbing memories to mind and adding bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping with touch or audio cues) can change thoughts, images and feelings. Memories tend to loose their painful intensity.