Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is a process that assists clients in processing past painful memories so that they no longer cause the client difficulties in the present day. This frees the person to make healthy, adult choices and take beneficial actions in their lives.
When someone has experienced situations or events that were too difficult to process at the time, the person often senses and feels the past experience as if it’s happening now. The person tends to flip back and forth between being constantly on alert and acting out avoidance behavior. The past is continually experienced in the present instead of experiencing the reality of the present. Psychological trauma is associated with numerous changes in the nervous system. Due to this imbalance, the neurological information process system is unable to function optimally, and the experience, including sounds, images, emotions, and physical sensations, are stored in a disturbed state. Instead of being processed and released, these memories stay active and can be triggered by internal or external experience in the form of intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, and other feelings and behaviors.
If an event or memory feels traumatic to you, then it is. A disturbing event becomes traumatic when a person’s nervous system fails to process some of all of the sensory information – what you saw, heard, thought, felt physically, or felt emotionally. It them becomes locked into the neurobiology causing emotional pain and difficulties in life and relationships. Disturbing memories and behaviors that cause difficulties in life are symptoms of a memory or memories that were too disturbing to process when they happened, which caused them to get “stuck” in the synapses of the brain. Those memories are isolated from the functional areas of the brain that would activate to process and release the memories.
Many childhood experiences are infused with a sense of powerlessness, lack of choice, lack of control, and inadequacy. EMDR often leads to the progressive emergence of a state of self-acceptance, a sense of safety, a sense of control in the present, and confidence in one’s ability to make choices.
During an EMDR session the brain’s own information processing system is activated using Bilateral Dual Stimulation to activate the dysfunctional memories and bring them forward to connect with the functional memories that handle and process the traumatic event which is then restored in altered, resolved form through the process of memory reconsolidation.
Bilateral Dual Stimulation is achieved by stimulating both sides of the brain using various methods. The most well know is side to side eye movements. Other methods are tactile pulsers held in each hand, tapping on the knees, hands, or shoulders, or audio stimulation with a headset.
Consistency is important when you first start therapy. The beginning stages include life history and coping skills. This phase can last a day or a year. EMDR is tailored to who you are as a person and your needs. Once EMDR therapy begins, clients need to make sure that they are able to attend sessions once per week or more for approximately 4-6 weeks.
Contact Christina at 316-512-1660 to schedule an EMDR session or to schedule a 20 minute consultation to find out more and ask questions before you decide on what’s right for you.