What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. This title can make it sound intimidating, but is helpful in describing exactly what EMDR aims to do. EMDR is another model of therapy that typically utilizes rapid eye movements to desensitize distressing thoughts, emotions, body sensations and images that have been stored in the brain from past negative experiences. EMDR helps the brain to reprocess these negative events so they are no longer impacting our day-to-day lives.
Another way to think of this is to imagine that our brain is like a garden. As we go throughout our days, seeds are planted in the soil that eventually come to fruition. Negative events are planted in the brain as a weed, growing a root system and eventually pushing through the soil.
These negative events are sometimes quite small or don’t jump out as us when we look back on them, but other times can be large events that are easy for us to identify. When the weed breaks ground, it comes out as a variety of symptoms that impact our ability to live our lives such as anxiousness, sadness, flashbacks, nightmares, dissociation, anger, addiction or dependence, and many more.
EMDR aims to trace the weed back to the roots and the seed it was originally planted from and remove it from the garden, replacing it with a beautiful flower. Through the work done in EMDR, clients will still have memories of these negative events, however, will no longer carry feelings of distress. EMDR has been proven to be effective in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorders, Substance Use Disorders and many more. EMDR is typically more effective in a shorter amount of time than traditional talk therapy, with longer lasting benefits.
Because of the benefit from extended reprocessing time, the world of EMDR is beginning to shift into more intensive session lengths. In order to best serve our clients, we offer these longer sessions to increase the benefit you will see after each session. Sessions can be booked at a minimum of two hours and upwards of four hours. While this can seem daunting for those who are unfamiliar with EMDR, this option can prove to be valuable for seeing symptom reduction without the need to come in each week or to move through treatment at a faster rate.
The Eight Phases of EMDR Treatment
Phase One
In this phase, your therapist will gather pertinent information about you, your symptoms and discover negative events for reprocessing work.
In this phase, your therapist will guide you through a variety of calming and grounding exercises to decrease symptoms between sessions and increase coping mechanisms.
In this phase, your therapist will help “set the scene” for a memory to be reprocessed in the next phase.
In this phase, your therapist will utilize eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation to guide you through the reprocessing of a negative event.
In this phase, your therapist will help you to replace the weed with a flower and install a positive cognition to replace the negative one that existed before.
Phase Six
In this phase, your therapist will help you to notice and eliminate any body sensations associated with the negative event.
Phase Seven
This this phase, your therapist will help guide you to a calm and grounded space to ensure you are ready to walk out of the office and into the rest of your day.
Phase Eight
In this phase, your therapist will help you to determine if further EMDR sessions are needed, or if you are ready to be discharged.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is EMDR More Expensive Than Traditional Therapy?
EMDR therapy is more cost effective overall, requiring fewer sessions than traditional therapy. While you may pay less over time with traditional therapy, most will pay that smaller amount over a longer period of time to get the same relief EMDR could provide in fewer sessions.
What Can I Expect After an EMDR Session?
After an EMDR session, there may be a strong sense of relief, a feeling of openness and healing. Many clients will continue to reprocess information for the following few days, sometimes leading to new insights, vivid dreams, or a resurgence of memories. Others report no noticeable changes after an EMDR session.
How Many Sessions Will I Need of EMDR?
Treatment can be very rapid with EMDR, however, the number of sessions will vary based on the complexity of the issues being dealt with and the length of the sessions. Relief from emotional distress often comes within the first few sessions as you work through the first two phases with your therapist.
Is EMDR Like Hypnosis?
Absolutely not! There are many differences between EMDR and hypnosis, but the most notable difference is that a person in an EMDR session does not ever go into the trance-like state state of consciousness.
What’s Up With The Eye Movements Anyway?
The rapid eye movements utilized in EMDR therapy are quite familiar to your body, as you naturally engage in these eye movements every night when you sleep. EMDR aims to recreate the same movements we all have when we are in REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep. However, there are multiple ways to create the bilateral stimulation needed for EMDR therapy.
Are There Different Types of Trauma?
Yes! In the world of EMDR, we look specifically at two types of trauma.
“Big T” traumas are a single incident trauma or life changing event. These are typically the events people think of when the word trauma is mentioned. Common examples of Big T traumas would include; war, rape and major accidents.
“Little T” traumas are an accumulation or a series of traumatic or abusive events. Some of these events may not even be recognizable to the individual as a Little T, but remain as implicit memory. Some examples of Little T traumas include; childhood neglect and abuse, repeated verbal abuse from a close family member or authority figure, bullying, domestic abuse and complicated grief.
What’s Up With The Eye Movements Anyway?
The rapid eye movements utilized in EMDR therapy are quite familiar to your body, as you naturally engage in these eye movements every night when you sleep. EMDR aims to recreate the same movements we all have when we are in REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep. However, there are multiple ways to create the bilateral stimulation needed for EMDR therapy.
Is EMDR For Everyone?
While EMDR can be helpful for a wide variety of different mental health issues or general life challenges, as with any therapy modality there must be careful consideration of who would benefit. Talk with your therapist about whether EMDR therapy might be a good fit for your needs!