What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.
Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy, people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. Many people assume that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
During EMDR therapy, the client mentally attends to emotionally disturbing material in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus. Therapist-directed lateral eye movements are the most commonly used external stimulus, but various other stimuli, including hand-tapping and audio stimulation, are often used.
There are eight phases of EMDR therapy.
History and treatment planning. The therapist and the client will discuss the client’s history, and they will choose the traumatic events to reprocess.
Preparation. The therapist will then help the client prepare for any emotional disturbances that may arise by providing specific coping techniques.
Assessment. The therapist will guide the client through identifying the event to reprocess along with the images, beliefs, feelings, and sensations associated with it. The therapist will also establish baselines to monitor progress throughout treatment.
Desensitization. The client will begin bilateral stimulation, such as eye movement while thinking about the chosen traumatic event and allowing new thoughts, images, feelings, or sensations to emerge. The goal during this phase is to decrease distress while focusing on the event.
Installation. Following desensitization, the therapist will guide the client through strengthening positive beliefs.
Body Scan. The therapist will help the client determine if there is any residual disturbance in the body.
Closure. The therapist will assist the client in returning to a state of calm.
Reevaluation. At the beginning of the next session, the therapist and client will discuss recently processed memories and evaluate how the client is currently feeling.
Francine Shapiro, the founder of EMDR therapy, hypothesizes that EMDR facilitates accessing of the traumatic memory network so that information processing is enhanced. New associations are forged between the traumatic memory and more adaptive memories or information. These new associations are believed to result in complete information processing, new learning, elimination of emotional distress, and development of cognitive insights.