What is EMDR? (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)


Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches. To date, EMDR has helped an estimated two million people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress. EMDR treatment is used to achieve the most profound and comprehensive treatment effects in the shortest period of time.


Why the Need for EMDR?


All patterns (brain activity patterns, thinking patterns, emotional patterns, behavior patterns, communication patterns, relationship patterns)--both the good ones and the bad ones--are the result of an accumulation of experiences stored in your brain and nervous system. Most of the negative “patterns” people want to change have been caused by two things. The first is something called imprinting. From the time you’re conceived your brain starts developing very rapidly, and how it develops is shaped tremendously by everything being pulled in through your five senses. This creates an “imprint” on your developing brain, which becomes the conditioned way you will naturally tend to think, feel, and act unless other forces have somehow reshaped this imprinting later on. So early life experiences (even ones you can’t consciously remember) — especially experiences with caregivers and others close to you — have a massive influence on personality development.

The second major shaping influence for these patterns is stress. Again from conception onward, anytime you’re under any type of stress your brain triggers certain glands in your body to produce a large amount of hormones we call “stress hormones,” like adrenaline and cortisol. During these periods of time, your brain does not process the information coming in through your five senses the way it normally does. This leads to a chain reaction of effects in your nervous system: kind of like “undigested” sensory data that creates “blockages” in your nervous system, alterations to pathways within your nervous system, and alterations to brain chemistry where your neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, chetacholamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, etc.) get thrown out of balance.

The bottom line is that it’s the buildup of the effects of this “stress response” in your body, brain, and nervous system that is believed to be the culprit behind most of the emotional difficulties that people experience. Basically, you’ve reached a point where certain things are triggering a pattern of neurological impulses in your body to fire off over and over again. Over time all these patterns get stronger and stronger -- it’s like working out a muscle, the more you work it the stronger it gets (on a neurological level, it’s actually more like water running through a trench -- the more water that runs through it, the deeper it gets carved out until you get to the point where it seems like everything wants to flow into that groove much too easily!).

EMDR works very well at changing emotional reactions, negative thought patterns, and entrenched habits (and often times even physical discomfort) that people can’t just “think themselves out of.” EMDR has given us the ability to essentially reverse all those negative patterns that have developed in your brain, body, and nervous system.


What is EMDR Treatment Like?


There are actually two key elements of EMDR treatment. The first is something called “bilateral stimulation” (BLS) -- which just means “two-sided stimulation.” Your brain has a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere, each controlling the opposite side of your body. Creating a rhythmic, back and forth stimulation of each hemisphere of the brain seems to stimulate something we call the “information processing system” to go into a highly accelerated mode of functioning.

The second key element of EMDR treatment is sort of the “art and science” of how the therapist prompts and guides your thoughts during the bilateral stimulation. Your therapist works with you to identify a specific problem as the focus of the treatment session. The client calls to mind the disturbing issue or event, what was seen, felt, heard, thought, etc., and what thoughts and beliefs are currently held about that event. The therapist facilitates the BLS while the client focuses on the disturbing material, and the client notices whatever comes to mind without making any effort to control direction or content. Sets of BLS are continued until the memory becomes less disturbing and is associated with positive thoughts and beliefs about one’s self -- for example, “I did the best I could.”


I Don’t Remember Having any Trauma. Why Do I Need EMDR?


According to the December, 2005 Harvard Mental Health Letter (“Post-traumatic Stress Without Trauma”): Experiences not usually regarded as traumatic can cause the characteristic symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. Surprisingly, life events (such as relationship problems, work problems, financial problems, school problems, health problems, significant losses or life changes) were as likely as traumatic events to cause symptoms typical of post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, people whose worst event was not traumatic had more post-traumatic stress symptoms for a longer time than those whose worst event was traumatic. The authors suggest that life events may increase overall psychological stress and distress, bringing on symptoms related to an earlier trauma.

Traumatic events may reduce the ability to cope with other kinds of stress. Both traumatic experiences and overall distress may increase the risk of developing post-traumatic symptoms after either a traumatic experience or a non-traumatic life event.

EMDR also works successfully in treatment of the following conditions:

  • panic attacks
  • performance anxiety
  • complicated grief
  • stress reduction
  • addictions
  • disturbing memories
  • sexual and / or physical abuse
  • phobias
  • body dysmorphic disorders
  • pain disorders
  • personality disorders
  • dissociative disorders
  • eating disorders