EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
The EMDR backstory
A woman is walking in a park. As she walks, various thoughts – some of them upsetting – pop in and out of her mind. Later on, she notices that when she takes her mind back to these upsetting thoughts, they no longer feel as disturbing or intense. She feels lighter somehow. She gets curious about this and decides to pay attention to what may have helped lower her distress.
Replaying her walk, she realizes that while walking, her eyes had been moving back and forth ahead of her, across her line of vision. She wonders: could this action of the eyes be a key to desensitizing strong unpleasant emotions?
Over the years, she tests these kinds of eye movements on herself and her friends, and finds that they actually do lower stress levels. The woman was Francine Shapiro, the year was 1987, and what she discovered came to be known as EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
Watch the video below to hear directly from EMDR therapists and their clients.
Video by EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)
How does EMDR work?
EMDR uses a method called bilateral stimulation (BLS) to facilitate emotional processing. Most people associate EMDR with the form of BLS that involves tracking the therapist’s fingers or a light bar with the eyes from left to right across one’s line of vision.
Other than eye movements, different forms of bilateral stimulation can be used in EMDR, like using your hands to tap gently back and forth on your knees, arms, or shoulders, or tapping on the floor alternately with your left and right foot. You could also listen to a recording that moves from the left to the right ear. A simple and popular calming technique used in EMDR that you could try out for yourself is the butterfly hug, which you can find on various YouTube videos.
Updating negative beliefs
Traumatic life events can shatter our inner and outer sense of safety and security, thereby fundamentally changing the way our brains work and shifting how we see ourselves and the world around us. We may develop negative beliefs and patterns of behavior that make us feel stuck.
Fortunately, our brains have a strong instinct to heal. This means that even after a devastating or traumatic experience, our brains can learn adaptive ways of functioning. EMDR helps us identify negative beliefs associated with traumatic events. BLS is then used to desensitize the traumatic incident with its corresponding negative beliefs, images, emotions, and sensations.
Finally, a new adaptive belief is created and integrated to form a positive neural network in the brain. For example, a survivor of domestic abuse may feel worthless and powerless, and experience deep feelings of shame with negative beliefs such as: “I am shameful”, “I’m unlovable” or “I’m powerless”.
EMDR can help desensitize these negative feelings of shame, worthlessness, and powerlessness and update the brain with positive beliefs, such as “I’m OK as I am” or “I now have choices”. Equipped with a new adaptive belief system, a trauma survivor can gradually overcome past traumas and begin to integrate positive experiences and memories.
EMDR therapists
By the 1990s, EMDR was being used for treating PTSD and other traumatic life experiences. Today we have vibrant communities of EMDR therapists and certified trainers all around the world. EMDR is recognized by organizations such as the APA (American Psychiatric Association), National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), WHO (World Health Organization), and Veterans Administration (VA) as an effective therapy for the treatment of trauma.
EMDR is also used not just for trauma treatment but also for anxiety, depression, OCD, eating disorders, etc.
Contact Nyambura Kihato, a certified EMDR therapist, for more information.
Useful links:
EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)
Psychology Today
Enter your zip code, click on “Types of Therapy.” Select EMDR for a list of EMDR therapists in your area.
Photo by Louis Galvez on Unsplash