EMDR (Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing) Therapy

EMDR therapy was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the 1980s. Her original research focused on people who had experienced a “single incident” trauma such as a car accident or similar event. Since then other randomized, controlled studies have replicated her conclusion: that people with PTSD who have EMDR treatment fare better than those in control groups who don’t.

Unlike other memories, traumatic memories are stored in short term memory which is why they are often accompanied by images, sounds, smells, body sensations and strong emotions; these can cause flashbacks, intrusive thoughts and nightmares, three classic signs of PTSD. Fortunately, our brains have plasticity, meaning neural pathways can be changed. EMDR moves traumatic memories out of short term storage and into long term storage where they are less likely to interfere in our lives.

When doing EMDR, the client maintains a dual awareness with one foot in the past incident and the other in the present moment. Dr. Shapiro believes that this dual awareness is what makes EMDR so successful. The dual awareness allows the client to observe the incident while staying in the thinking part of the brain which allows for insights not possible during the event. In EMDR processing, the client follows his/her train of thought while the therapist facilitates the processing and intervenes minimally, except to reassure the client of his/her safety. From time to time, the therapist will stop the eye movements and ask the client to report any thoughts, feelings or body sensations that come up. After check in, the client returns to processing.

A couple of reasons EMDR therapy is attractive to clients is they don’t necessarily need to share all the specific details of an incident, but instead often focus on small details along with the thoughts, emotions, body sensations they experienced and their level of disturbance before processing began. In other types of trauma therapy clients share specific details over multiple sessions which can be re-traumatizing and lead clients to drop out of therapy. The EMDR protocol mitigates this drawback. Secondly, for clients with multiple traumatic incidents, they often find that after processing one incident, other incidents have also become non-symptomatic.

Sometimes when clients come to me for EMDR, they are disappointed to find that we don’t begin trauma processing immediately. A good therapeutic relationship is essential for successful EMDR, and that takes time. When doing EMDR there is protocol to follow. In addition to developing a safe therapeutic relationship, the therapist needs to know the client’s history, life situation, and to determine if the client has the healthy coping skills and support network needed to look at disturbing events without becoming destabilized. Sometimes there needs to be some skills training before the trauma processing can begin. I’ve learned that when we take time to address these issues first, the actual trauma processing moves quickly

Although neurobiologists can’t explain exactly how EMDR works, the general consensus is that it works along the same lines as Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep which is the dream cycle. When we dream, our eyes move back and forth, crossing the midline of the body. Since the early days of psychotherapy dream analysis has been an important tool in the process of therapy, and some therapists use dream work extensively as a way of helping people heal. The EMDR eye movements, sounds or tapping mimic REM sleep by assisting clients in crossing the midline of the body as a way to help them heal from trauma.

For a brochure with more information about EMDR click here.