EMDR: A Resource for Trauma Victims

When I first heard about EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, I thought that it sounded interesting but I was unsure if it could really be helpful to trauma victims. From the things I heard from other therapists, I thought that EMDR sounded a little too good to be true and I didn't understand how waving my fingers in front of someone's eyes would help them process through anything.  However, as I have been trained in EMDR and have used it in my practice, I have seen some very positive and promising results. EMDR is a psychotherapy approach that has been seen to help individuals who have experienced trauma.  It is a therapy that is geared towards addressing disturbing life experiences that have not been processed and that in turn contribute to clinical problems. The idea is that memory networks are the basis of mental health and if a memory has gone unprocessed and is dysfunctionally stored at the time of the event, an individual can be triggered repeatedly throughout life until the memory is reprocessed.  A memory can go unprocessed if an individual is experiencing high levels of emotion at the time of a disturbing event. Any life experience that has a lasting negative impact can be considered trauma in this regard (like the time someone swapped the gummy worms on my ice cream for real worms).

EMDR is a multi-stage approach but perhaps the most important aspect to understand is why therapists use bilateral stimulation during the process. Bilateral stimulation is stimuli that occurs in a left-right rhythmic pattern and it can be auditory, visual or tactile. Essentially, during the session, the therapist will ask the client to bring up a memory that is difficult or traumatic. While the client is thinking back on this memory, the therapist will stimulate each side of the client's brain. This can be done through eye movements by the client following the therapist's fingers back and forth or by tapping the client's knees left-right. This may sound strange or uncomfortable but the finding is that by stimulating both sides of the brain while a troubling image is brought up, processing occurs. Think about when you are sleeping- in REM sleep your eyes move back and forth and your brain is processing through the previous day, all the while memories are being stored. It has been found that replicating this process through EMDR, memories that have become stuck may be reprocessed and individuals can become desensitized to the memories that once triggered them. The thing that I have found to be most interesting during my experience with EMDR is how intricate the memory network is. One memory could be tied to another that is seemingly unrelated. For example, during the processing a client could start by thinking about a memory of being bullied at school and after the bilateral stimulation a memory may come up of falling off his or her bike or not wanting to eat grandmother's homemade marmalade. Essentially the brain and all the memory networks are so complex and interconnected in patterns that we cannot always logically understand. This is why EMDR may have the ability to target some negative thoughts or troubling memories that a client may not be able to identify through straight talk therapy. As I mentioned above, I have seen positive outcomes from utilizing EMDR and as a therapist I am glad to have it as a resource to help victims of trauma.

KJ Green, CSW