What is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)?
EMDR is far, far more than the unusual eye movements people often associate with the treatment. EMDR treatment begins from your very first session. The basics of EMDR involve understanding you as a person, your life and your experiences as well as the themes in your life and patterns of behaviour that aren’t working so well for you. All this is fundamental to the ‘eye movement’ phase of EMDR.
But first it’s important to know what happens during trauma…
Our brain, much like our body, has an inherent ability to heal. However, when we endure a traumatic or highly stressful event, the memory of it can get “stuck” rather than being processed like an ordinary memory.
When we’re faced with a threat, the brain’s ‘smoke alarm’ (the amygdala) is triggered, initiating an unconscious fight, flight, or freeze response. During this time, the brain region responsible for marking time and date on memories (the hippocampus) may be suppressed. Consequently, the memory feels ‘frozen in time,’ and we may relive it repeatedly, with the same emotions and thoughts we had during the original event. This can manifest as flashbacks, nightmares, or intrusive thoughts. It’s as if the brain’s ‘smoke alarm’ keeps going off, even though the trauma is in the past and there’s no current danger. This can lead to feelings of anxiety or a constant sense of being unsafe. Over time, trauma or stress can also shape our thinking, often leading to negative beliefs about ourselves (“I’m not good enough”), others (“People can’t be trusted”), or the world (“The world isn’t safe”).
How EMDR Therapy can help:
EMDR therapy uses bilateral stimulation, like eye movements and bilateral tapping, to help the brain process and resolve these ‘stuck’ memories. During the therapy, we’ll work together to identify the issues or symptoms you’re facing and we’ll work out together where we should begin. We will also explore the traumatic or stressful events that may have contributed to the development of these symptoms. These events will be the focus, or ‘targets,’ for the therapy.
Once we’ve identified a memory to target, we’ll prepare to process it. I’ll ask you to focus on the image that best represents the distressing memory, the negative belief about yourself connected to the event, what you’d prefer to believe instead, and the emotions or sensations you experience when you think about it. I’ll guide you to follow my fingers as they move left to right (or use other forms of bilateral stimulation, like alternating sounds or taps) while you focus on the memory. You’ll notice whatever comes up, allowing the process to unfold naturally. This continues in cycles, and I’ll check in with you after each set of eye movements to explore what’s coming up for you.
How does it work?
The bilateral stimulation used in EMDR therapy triggers a neurological process that unlocks the memory, helping to ‘jumpstart’ the brain’s natural ability to process it. This process is somewhat similar to what happens during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the phase when we dream most vividly, except that during EMDR therapy, you’re awake and in control. When you recall the memory, it moves from your long-term memory into your working memory (short-term memory). While tracking my fingers, your working memory is processing a lot at once, which ‘overloads’ it — and this is a positive thing!
This process generally leads to three outcomes: the memory becomes more distant, emotional distress fades, and new, healthier beliefs emerge. It encourages connections between the emotional brain and the logical thinking brain, resulting in a shift in how you view the memory, with it having less of a negative impact. Over time, as you work through key memories or issues in EMDR therapy, you’re likely to see a reduction in trauma symptoms, more positive thinking patterns, and noticeable changes in your behaviour and responses. These shifts are deep and lasting because they address the core issues, not just the symptoms.
EMDR follows an eight-phase model, and the time it takes can vary depending on individual needs. Some people may need more preparation than others, and some memories might be resolved in a single session, while others may take a few. EMDR is a highly effective treatment, recognised by the World Health Organisation and widely used by trauma therapists worldwide.