What is EMDR?
Let me paint a picture for you.
You:
are having a hard time feeling connected to your surroundings
feel like you’re going through the motions
sense that the slightest thing can set you on edge
feel suffocated around certain people (or anyone and everyone)
get a familiar feeling of “Déjà vu” and it doesn’t feel good
are waiting for the other shoe to drop
can’t trust your accomplishments
are scared to enter a committed relationship
have gone to therapy before, and nothing has worked, or something has worked but the same problem keeps popping back up.
Does this sound familiar to you? If so, you could benefit from EMDR.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of trauma therapy that allows your brain to go over the details of past events that still affect you. This can be anything from a sexual assault to a terrible boss you had at a past job. You don’t need to have PTSD to get help from EMDR!
Wait, but why would I want to rehash the details of my trauma? That sounds scary!
Yeah, it is, and that’s the whole purpose—part of healing means confronting the things that scare us, even the things that remind us of our trauma. No one said that this was easy. But worth it? Absolutely.
Dr. Francine Shapiro founded EMDR therapy. Long story short, something stressful happened, and she decided to go for a walk in a wooded area. She was looking from tree to tree, and her eyes were moving back and forth, as she processed the details of the stressful event that happened earlier. She came home and realized she was feeling less stressed and more at peace.
Crazy? Maybe. She decided to apply what she found and started the early version of EMD with a group of veterans at a clinic, and the results showed a significant decrease in stress.
So what is it about eye movements that help with trauma and adversity?
EMDR uses rapid eye movements (REM) to help your brain process the details of events. It’s kind of like the REM cycle that you enter when you sleep—you’re brain is going over the details of the day before you enter the next one. That’s why when you have a good night’s sleep, you feel so much more refreshed. When you don’t, you’re more on edge and you’re tenser. You’re carrying the load of the previous day’s stress with you.
When you process memories or triggers in EMDR, your brain is taking you on a journey through the past. Some random things unrelated to the past event may come up, and that’s 100% encouraging—your brain is trying to help you make connections and make sense of what happened so you can move on.
Some people feel like EMDR is hypnosis, but it’s not. You’re not entering another state of consciousness. You’re aware of both the past and the present at the same time. Have you spent hours scrolling through your Instagram or Tik Tok feed? It’s going to feel just like that—scrolling through the snippets of your life like a movie.
But I don’t want to focus on the past. I want to focus on the now!
You still can! EMDR is “three pronged”—it’s focused on the past, present, and future. We want to target the current triggers you’re experiencing now, and how you’d like to respond to these triggers in the future. Keep in mind that reprocessing a current trigger may bring up past events since your brain is trying to make connections for you. You might want to consider rehashing the past stuff to make focusing on the present stuff easier.
EMDR doesn’t always focus on the negative either. We can emphasize your positive memories and resources. EMDR is full of useful and helpful grounding techniques to help you come back to the center when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed.
What good will EMDR do for me?
Here are a couple of things my clients have said after experiencing EMDR therapy:
“It’s decreased my panic attacks!”
“I have a better understanding of why I am the way I am.”
“I understand that what happened to me and what happened in my family is not my fault or my burden to bare.”
“I may have been rejected in the past, but I have people who love me now.”
“I feel less on edge in my life now.”
“I wasn’t safe back then, but I’m safe now. The past is in the past.”
“It’s not about whether they like me. It’s about whether I want to be around them.”
“It’s not my fault.”
“My younger self deserved better. I deserve better!”
As a therapist, I can tell you why you should believe these things, but it’s a beautiful thing for you to come to these realizations on your own. Why not let your brain heal itself?
Interested in starting EMDR? Schedule your free intro call with me and let’s get started!