EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a dynamic psychological therapy. It is recommended as a treatment of choice for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). There is also a growing body of evidence for its effectiveness in overcoming a range of other difficulties, covering from anxiety disorders which have their origins in trauma or adverse life events.
For some people, when something traumatic has happened to them, the body's natural coping mechanisms can be overwhelmed, and subsequently, your brain may struggle to fully process the experience, your mind becoming simply too overwhelmed. As a result, you may find in your everyday life, sights, sounds and smells with a connection or similarity to a trauma event may “trigger” those improperly stored memories. it could even be by something insignificant, you may feel that the moment comes flashing back, repeating itself quite vividly in your head, forcing you to either re-live the memory of the experience or by bringing up the same intense feelings and emotions that are attached to the trauma.
While it isn't possible to completely erase these memories, the process of EMDR can alter the way these traumatic memories are stored within the brain by reducing the vividness of the traumatic memories, thus making them easier to manage and giving you more control over how you experience them, allowing you to gradually come to terms and move on from the experience, developing more healthy coping mechanisms.
EMDR is not a talking therapy but rather a way of making a painful or disturbing memory less upsetting. However, EMDR may sometimes be used alongside talking therapy if it is believed this approach may help. EMDR uses an eight-phase approach to address the past, present, and future aspects of stored memory. This involves recalling distressing events while receiving 'bilateral sensory input', including side-to-side eye movements, hand tapping, and auditory tones.
During a typical therapy session, I will ask you to focus on a memory while you either watch a light bar move it across your field of vision, use bilateral hand pulsers or use an audible aid, all of twhich can be done seamlessly online.
Whilst this is happening, your brain processes and reprograms traumatic memories. The sensations you experience during a session can be intense and powerful but won’t cause discomfort.
The therapeutic process of EMDR is approached in 8 phases. All phases contribute to the overall effect of EMDR therapy, however, not all phases may be used in one session. Here are the 8 phases below:
➢ Phase 1: History Taking
➢ Phase 2: Preparation - your therapist will walk you through how the sessions will work
➢ Phase 3: Assessing the Target Memory
➢ Phase 4-7: Processing the Memory to Adaptive Resolution - this is when you’ll begin using the eye movements to integrate the traumatic memory
➢ Phase 8: Evaluating Treatment Results
I will pause after each set of eye movements to ask you to share your thoughts or feelings. If you notice shifts in your sentiments or cognitive responses, it signifies that reprocessing is taking place. Over several sessions, EMDR can help reframe your response to distressing thoughts or memories, lessening their emotional impact.