Understanding How EMDR Works For Trauma
EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING (EMDR)
** Adapted from article written by Jason N. Linder, PsyD for Psychology Today
EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING (EMDR)
- Our minds have the natural capacity to process what happens to us in a healthy adaptive way. Some experiences can be so stressful and distressing that they overwhelm this natural process (rumination and unwanted intrusions about the future can also overwhelm the natural process).
- When the past/future experience is highly distressing, it is stored in a way that mimics the experience (e.g., same body sensations, same perceptions, same beliefs, same images). Oftentimes, the fuel to mental disturbances may be a set of unprocessed, undigested memories.
- EMDR helps to remove this disruption. The mind can actively heal by engaging this natural process using bilateral simulation (e.g., eye movements, etc.) while holding a distressing memory/future scenario in your mind. This dual attention assists in ‘turning on’ this natural adaptive process, which involve the amygdala (alarm center); hippocampus (memory); and the prefrontal cortex (behavior & emotions).
- Preparation for this “emotional surgery” involves learning strategies to enhance body recalibration, present-moment awareness, and self-soothing.
- Successful EMDR therapy resolves the fight/flight/freeze response. You will still experience emotions related to the memory, but the level of distress that you originally had will be reprocessed and stored in a healthy, non-distressing way.
** Adapted from article written by Jason N. Linder, PsyD for Psychology Today