What is Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)?
Psychology provides an effective approach that addresses more than just outward symptoms when it comes to recovering from deeply ingrained emotional experiences. This method is intended especially for treating conditions that have their origins in the past.
The flexibility of this approach is what sets it apart. It incorporates elements of many treatment philosophies, enabling therapists to customize the procedure to meet the needs of each patient.
This method is based on an eight-phase, structured process. It views psychological distress as a result of how the brain stores information. It is not just a set of symptoms. The therapy helps people feel better and take charge of their emotions. It does this by focusing on and reworking their past experiences.
Historical Background
Psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro was walking through the park in 1987 when something remarkable happened: she began experiencing distressing thoughts, but when her eyes traveled from side to side, the distress somehow disappeared. She started wondering if merely shifting her eyes could actually make her desensitized to emotional pain after having made this fascinating realization.
Spurred by this unexpected insight, she began to experiment with the idea, initially on herself and subsequently on other individuals. To her surprise, what proved to be a distressing memory actually became less charged emotionally when the eyes were directed in lateral movements as the memory was being kept in mind.
Dr. Shapiro’s work was published in 1989 as Eye Movement Desensitization (EMD). She conducted one of the first controlled tests in 1989 in which subjects who tracked these eye movements revealed a significant increase in relief compared to those who simply imagined their memories.
As her work progressed, Dr. Shapiro learned that there were cognitive shifts happening in conjunction with eye movements. In 1991, she improved the technique and called it Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She added eye movements to help desensitize and a better theory for processing information.
Goals of EMDR
- To facilitate resolution of traumatic early life experiences
- Desensitize stimuli that causes present day distress
- Incorporate adaptive attitudes, skills, and desired behaviors for enhanced future functioning
Why does it matter?
Reaching Peace with the Past
EMDR gently guides you toward resolving childhood or early-life experiences that continue to cast a shadow over your emotional well-being.
Easing Today’s Emotional Triggers
By skillfully desensitizing the powerful stimuli that spark anxiety or distress in day-to-day life, EMDR helps you regain a sense of calm and control.
Cultivating Hope and Resilience for Tomorrow
The process also introduces and reinforces empowering beliefs, adaptable skills, and constructive behaviors—boosting your ability to thrive in the future.
How Does EMDR Works?
When a person gets upset or is in distress, the brain is unable to process the information as it should be. Something traumatic or an ongoing situation causes strong feelings that get “frozen in time” and “trapped in the information processing system. Hence, Dr. Shapiro asserts EMDR directly influences how the brain processes disturbing information. Moreover, Average daily information is temporarily stored in the midbrain (amygdala) and then transferred to the neocortex during REM sleep.
So, when trauma happens, it’s “too big” and can’t be processed and remains in the Amygdala, where it is felt. Same memories develop in clumps, so others will stick with similar memories in both the neocortex and the amygdala. EMDR takes this information and helps store it in long-term memory. You will remember, but you cannot re-experience it.
In short, we do not fully understand the neurobiological effect of EMDR. However, it is now believed that EMDR mimics the processing that happens during REM sleep.
Eight 8 Phases/Stages of EMDR
1. Taking History
Genograms
Thorough Assessments
Following your instincts
Other methods???
Balancing Trauma with Strengths
2. Preparation
Containment
Grounding
Safe/Calm Place
Allies/Protectors
Inner advisor
3. Assessment
This goes hand in hand with Desensitization
Setting up the target image
Assessing emotions, somatic/sensations, and negative cognition
Uncovering the desired positive cognition
SUDS
VOC
4. Desensitization
Introducing Bilateral Stimulation
Checking in on awareness of experience
Auditory
Tactile
Visual (research based)
5. Installing
The desired positive cognition
Installation
Checking the client’s belief in the positive cognition
Past
Present
Future Contain
6. Body Scan
Checking for full clearing
Sometimes finding new information/feelings
Emphasizing the experimental nature
7. Closure
Safe/Calm Place
Containment
8. Re-evaluation
The next session
Checking the SUDS and the VOC
May find more information/feelings
Sometimes find feeder memories
Considerations before conducting the therapy
Power of the technique
Disruptive to Pregnant people
Legal Involvement
