EMDR therapy differs from other forms of talk therapy in that it focuses on reprocessing the storage of traumatic memories in the brain, thus significantly reducing symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety as a result. Bilateral stimulation, such as rapid eye movements or buzzing tappers, are a major component to the treatment and reprocessing of memories. The idea is that this form of therapy allows people to heal from emotional distress from traumatic events that were not fully processed.
EMDR therapy is guided by the Adaptive Information Processing theory, which describes how memories are processed and stored. The theory is that some traumatic memories cause distress because they have not been processed and released, but rather have gotten stuck in the amygdala (the emotional center of the brain) and the hippocampus (the memory center of the brain), causing a heightened fight or flight response, negative beliefs and intense emotional responses.
EMDR aims to focus on the memory itself, not removing it, but changing the way it is stored in the brain and therefore, reducing the vividness of the traumatic memories. Key components include grounding exercises, visualization, resource building, thought replacement and bilateral stimulation (often eye movements). As a client moves through the process, their brain is able to reprocess how the memory is stored, thus reducing the distress associated with the memory and installing positive thoughts and emotions instead.
During an EMDR session, your eyes will remain open and your therapist will ask you to follow their fingers with your eyes (or will use another form of bilateral simulation such as tappers) while also recalling a traumatic event. Your therapist will hold space for you to process the experience and allow your brain to make the connections it needs to in order to more adaptively store the experience. They will also guide you to switch to more empowering thoughts and resources. The goal of using this technique is to transform the effect of the disabling event or trauma, calming the nervous system, turning off the fight or flight response and allowing you to heal.
“Therapists work alongside clients when utilizing bilateral stimulation (including eye movements, and sometimes tapping as well),” says Michaela Decker, a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) that has been using EMDR therapy for the last six years. “Typically, faster eye movements are used when processing negative experiences and slower eye movements are utilized when installing positive experiences.”
“Therapists remain attuned to their client’s eye movements throughout the session and if eye movements stop, it is often an appropriate time to take a brief break,” she adds. “During this break, the client can verbally discuss their experience or participate in a somatic exercise such as closing their eyes and looking for signs of tension in their body, before re-starting the eye movements.”
Since its inception, it’s been evaluated in 36 randomized controlled studies for the treatment of trauma, and is recommended by the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association for treatment of PTSD, among other mental health diagnoses.
“EMDR is empirically validated and supported,” says Decker.
