EMDR therapy
CAN BE LIFE CHANGING
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treats mental health conditions that happen because of memories from traumatic events in your past. It’s best known for its role in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but its use is expanding to include treatment of many other conditions. EMDR can be used by Clear Mindset Counseling Center, Inc. if you experience anxiety.
- Durning an EMDR session, the therapist helps the individual process distressing memories.
- Was developed in 1987
WHAT IS EMDR THERAPY?
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is known for its positive results in a relatively short amount of time—depending on the complexity and severity of trauma.
In session, clients follow rapid back and forth movements with their eyes during bilateral stimulation while the clinician instructs them to go with whatever thought, image, or event has appeared in their mind.
The combination of rapid eye movement while thinking about past events in a kind of cinematic fashion—as if one’s memories were scenes from a movie—allows the brain to reprocess maladaptively filed memories.
Clients often report feeling a sense of relief and calm. And after a series of sessions, clients have reported that they don’t even think about the targeted memory anymore—nor do they feel the triggers towards certain behaviors the way they once did. They feel healed and ready to move on from issues of the past that once affected their present selves.
Why is this
treatment used?
EMDR therapy doesn’t require talking in detail about a distressing issue. EMDR instead focuses on changing the emotions, thoughts or behaviors that result from a distressing experience (trauma). This allows your brain to resume a natural healing process. While many people use the words “mind” and “brain” when referring to the same thing, they’re actually different. Your brain is an organ of your body. Your mind is the collection of thoughts, memories, beliefs and experiences that make you who you are.
The way your mind works relies on the structure of your brain. That structure involves networks of communicating brain cells across many different areas. That’s especially the case with sections that involve your memories and senses. That networking makes it faster and easier for those areas to work together. That’s why your senses — sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feels — can bring back strong memories.
What conditions
does EMDR treat?
The most widespread use of EMDR is for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Clear Mindset Counseling Center, Inc. also use it in the treatment of the following conditions:
- Acute stress disorder
- Adjustment disorder
- Anxiety disorders
- Depression disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- Eating disorders
- Gender dysphoria
- Obsessive-compulsive disorders
- Panic disorders
- Personality disorders
- PTSD
- Trauma disorders
What is the recovery
time from EMDR?
Most people undergo EMDR for a few weeks to a several months. Recovery time between sessions is minimal and Clear Mindset Counseling Center, Inc. can help guide you on how to take care of yourself between sessions.
Risks / Benefits
What are the advantages and disadvantages of EMDR?
ADVANTAGES
- It works. Multiple studies have found that EMDR is effective and works.
- EMDR has a tendency to to work faster than other forms of therapy.
- It involves less homework. Other forms of therapy typically involve journaling or other types of homework outside of your therapy sessions. EMDR usually involves writing down any thoughts or ideas you want to bring up at your next therapy session (if and when those thoughts occur).
- It’s usually less stressful. EMDR focuses on processing and moving past your trauma. Other methods involve having you describe and even relive negative events that happened.
DISADVANTAGES
EMDR does have some drawbacks compared to other forms of therapy.
- It only works with conditions related to traumatic experiences. If you have a mental health condition because of an inherited condition, an injury or other physical effect on your brain, EMDR is unlikely to help. Other types of therapy may be discussed with Clear Mindset Counseling Center, Inc.
Procedure Details
What does EMDR therapy involve?
EMDR therapy consists of eight phases. These phases occur over multiple sessions, with one session sometimes using parts of several phases. An example of this would be how phases 1 and 2 typically happen only in early sessions, while the rest of the phases are part of multiple sessions later.
For a single disturbing event or memory, it usually takes between three and six sessions. More complex or longer-term traumas may take eight to 12 sessions (or sometimes more). Sessions usually last between 60 and 80 minutes. The eight phases are:
- Patient history and information gathering.
- Preparation and education. During this phase, your therapist will talk to you about what will happen during EMDR sessions and what you can expect.
- Assessment. This part of the process is where your therapist helps you identify themes and specific memories that you may want to work on during reprocessing. They’ll help you identify both negative beliefs about how the trauma has made you feel, as well as positive beliefs that you would like to believe about yourself going forward.
- Desensitization and reprocessing. During this phase, your therapist activates your memory by helping you identify one or more specific negative images, thoughts, feelings and body sensations. Throughout the reprocessing, they’ll help you notice how you feel and any new thoughts or insight you have about what you’re experiencing.
- Installation. During this phase, your therapist will have you focus on the positive belief you want to build in as you process a memory. This positive belief can be what you said in phase 3 or something new you think of during phase 4.
- Body scan. Your therapist will have you focus on how you feel in your body, especially any of the symptoms you feel when you think about or experience the negative memory. This phase helps identify your progress through EMDR therapy overall. As you go through sessions, your symptoms should decrease until you don’t have any (or as close to none as possible). Once your symptoms are gone, your reprocessing is complete.
- Closure and stabilization. This phase forms a bridge between later sessions. During this phase, your healthcare therapist will talk to you about what you should expect between sessions. They’ll also talk to you about how to stabilize yourself, especially if you have negative thoughts or feelings during the time between sessions. They won’t end a session until you feel calmer and safe. They might also ask you to write down any new thoughts you have about the disturbing event(s), so you can bring them up at your next session.
- Reevaluation and continuing care. The final phase of EMDR therapy involves your healthcare therapist going over your progress and how you’re doing now. This can help determine if you need additional sessions or how to adjust your goals and expectations for your therapy. They’ll also help you explore what you might experience in the future — how you would like to handle things at that time, knowing what you know now, about yourself and your past trauma.
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