What is EMDR anyway?
You’ve heard that EMDR can be a gamechanger for your mental health, but you are still wondering, “Actually, what is EMDR?”
As a therapist with more than a decade of experience, I’m here to answer that question!
What is EMDR? A treatment for trauma
To understand what EMDR is, we must first start with what trauma means. Trauma is any negative experience that has a lasting negative effect on us, often making us feel hopeless, scared or unable to function properly. Human beings are extremely adaptable and resilient, and thus oftentimes we heal just fine from a traumatic experience. But sometimes after we experience a trauma, it gets “stuck” in our brain, and we continue to relive the experience or feel unsafe for months or even years.Basically, our nervous system is constantly on guard and can quickly go into a state of fight-or-flight for seemingly small issues. For many people, this is what our anxiety looks like.
Trauma can be categorized into “Big T” Trauma and “Little t” trauma. Big Trauma might include a car accident, the death of a loved one, a violent experience, and so on. Many people are familiar with “Big T” Trauma, but “Little t” trauma has been shown to have just as much of an influence on us. Examples of smaller traumas might include childhood bullying, messaging received from parents as a child, a medical diagnosis, or the ending of a friendship.
Scientists believe these traumatic experiences get “stuck” because our brain is unable to process the information like we normally would after a day's events, and thus the event continues to be dysfunctionally held in our brains.
Sometimes, we are aware that the trauma is still bothering us. But more often than not, we have no idea. This lack of awareness can contribute to many common human conditions, including depression and anxiety. For people already prone to depression and anxiety, trauma can make symptoms worse. For others, trauma becomes the main cause of their symptoms. In either case, EMDR has been shown to help people properly process these “stuck” memories and provide them with immense relief of our anxiety or depression symptoms.
So exactly what is EMDR?
EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. It is evidence-based through an incredible amount of research by scientists and clinicians.
There are eight phases of EMDR:
History taking
Client preparation
Assessment
Desensitization
Installation
Body scan
Closure and reevaluation
I consider phase four, Desensitization, the crux of EMDR. This is where the reprocessing of memories occurs. Here, the client is asked to bring up the traumatic memory while engaging in a “dual attention stimulus” (DAS).
The most well-researched form of DAS is bilateral eye movements, but others include taps or tones. If a client is using bilateral eye movements, they would be asked to follow my fingers or a light as I moved them from side to side. Online, clients can follow a small ball move across their screen.
This movement mimics the processing our brains do during REM sleep, which is why we often feel better after a good night's sleep.
The bilateral stimulation is done in a series of sets that last around 30–60 seconds. After each set of eye movements, the client takes a deep breath and says a little about what came up during the set. The bilateral stimulation can start to become desensitized to the trauma and store the event as a processed, long term memory that no longer disturbs us.
Will EMDR really work for me?
If you think EMDR sounds strange, you’re not alone. I thought it was suspect the first time I heard about it, and people often ask me, “Is it like being hypnotized?” or even “Is it magic?”
The answer is no, it’s neither. EMDR is so incredibly well researched, it is now considered the most effective form of therapy for those struggling with trauma. And remember, we are ALL struggling with traumatic events, whether we realize it or not.
My clients often report that they haven’t had any traumatic experiences, and it may be true that they've been lucky enough to not have experienced many “Big Ts,” But we all have “Little ts” sprinkled throughout our lives, especially in childhood, although we may not be consciously aware of them or think of them often.
What about EMDR for depression and EMDR for anxiety?
Remember that there is a strongly-proven genetic component to anxiety and depression. However, there is just as much research showing that our environment (including childhood experiences) affects 50 percent of our struggle with depression and anxiety.
My depression and anxiety clients who are treated with EMDR often have a huge shift and a sort of “lightness” that occurs after processing past events—a greater sense of peace and presentness that allows them to cope better with life and experience their own depression and anxiety in a totally different light.
EMDR is not magic, but the effects can feel quite magical. EMDR is an amazing modality, and I can’t speak highly enough about it. If you have questions about EMDR therapy and would like to learn more about how it can help you, please reach out.
More EMDR resources
I was trained by the amazing Elizabeth Legg at The Road Less Traveled Counseling Center. You can learn more about EMDR there, or through the EMDR International Association.
