EMDR has been gaining much popularity in recent years, and for good reason, I might add. However, if you are like many, you may have heard it tossed around here and there but really don’t know what it is. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. For many years, it has been heavily used in the military and first responder populations to address Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We now know that it is good for so much more than just trauma alone. It is a highly effective method of treatment that targets negative thoughts from a neurological angle. Recent studies have found that 20 minutes of EMDR is equal to about 5 weeks of talk therapy (which addresses things from a cognitive level). This is not to say there isn’t a need for talk therapy, but it can sure speed up the healing process when EMDR is incorporated!
But what is up with the Eye Movement mumbo jumbo? Are you trying to hypnotize me?
No. Absolutely not. And quite the opposite, actually. With hypnosis, you are trying to suppress some thoughts or implant other thoughts into the subconscious. With EMDR, we target a specific memory of your choosing. At the same time, you are fully awake and conscious so that you and your brain can reprocess stunted/injured neural pathways to become healthy again. Often situations with high emotional intensity get frozen in an unhealthy pattern, where every negative feeling, thought, belief, bodily sensation, etc., all get stuck in the forefront of the mind. This causes it to act as a noise or a clouded filter in which the individual sees all things. Which causes many things to act as triggers to reliving or re-experiencing the negative stuff from the past. They call this the past is in the present. Thankfully, after reprocessing the event or incident, the past returns to its rightful place -the past- and stays there!
Why Eye Movement? How does that come into play exactly?
Eye Movement was the original method for tapping into those neural pathways, based on research by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. You likely know that REM is Rapid Eye Movement (as well as a pretty stellar bad from the 80’s and 90’s), and that when you are in REM sleep, your brain is actively processing a lot of information. During this time, our brain is making various connections between things, solving problems, figuring out how to do tasks, etc. Unfortunately, when you are asleep, you have no control over what your brain decides to process. So you end up having a very confusing dream about talking dolphins and finally figure out fourth-grade math (too bad you are 40 now, as that could have been really helpful 3 decades ago!). When you activate this bilateral stimulation while awake, however, you get to select what problem you will solve! And on top of that, when you are asleep, you likely get only 3-5 REM cycles, but while awake, you can easily do 10-15 cycles and get much more processing done!
What if I get vertigo or don’t like Eye Movements? Can this still work for me?
EMDR was coined early on in providing this highly researched and evidence-based treatment. What is not so great about that early naming is that the research quickly figured out that it isn’t as much about eye movement as bilateral stimulation. Eye Movement is still a prevalent method to stimulate both sides of the brain to pull memories back into the adaptive information process. Still, tapping that alternates from the left to the right side of the body, listening to tones that alternate from one ear to the other, dancing, walking your feet back and forth, and several other methods are equally effective. So if you have a seizure disorder, vertigo, vision issues, blindness, or any other issue that takes Eye Movements off the table, don’t worry a little about that! We have plenty of options and can find the proper bilateral stimulation just for you!
What should I expect from the EMDR experience?
INSIGHT! So much insight into why certain things were triggering you, and then you will see it all through an all-new perspective! You can expect to be desensitized to things that used to trigger a high emotional response from you. You will notice a positive shift in your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You will take those negative core beliefs that have held you hostage, for oh so long, and throw those right out the window, and replace them with your chosen positive core belief. Do you feel you have to control everything, or will you be a failure or worthless? Well, after EMDR, you will not only believe but feel the statement, “I can only control what I can, and I am worthwhile regardless.” Do you think you are not good enough and your needs don’t matter? You can reprocess that to where you recognize that you are good enough and you can get your needs met regardless. Do you feel you have to be responsible for everything? Nope! Not anymore, because now you can recognize how to take an appropriate amount of responsibility! Just imagine the weight lifted off your shoulders when the feelings and sensations inside your body actually match those rational thoughts you keep trying to remind yourself of!
How long does it take to desensitize and reprocess these negative core beliefs?
Desensitization can be done right away in a lot of cases. This is the EMD without the R. This method can target one specific emotionally charged event or piece of an event and shave the emotions and sensations away from it. It will not change the memory in any way. It will pull it back into working memory to get it back into that adaptive information process (where the brain determines what valuable information needs to be kept and takes the non-beneficial thoughts, sensations, etc, and let those parts go). That way, when you think of the event, or it is brought up, it will no longer bring up all those old feelings. You will remember it happened, but you can clearly identify that ‘that is old stuff, and it can’t hurt you any longer. You are safe now, okay now, and here in the present – no longer stuck in the past.
I hope that helps you have a slightly better understanding of EMDR. As far as contagiousness goes – it absolutely can be – because once you experience it yourself, you will want everyone you care about to experience it as well! Remember, Everybody Hurts, but with EMDR you can solve your problems. With this much brain power being harnessed, you never know…we might just put a Man On The Moon, “again”.
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