What is EMDR Therapy?
A Brief Introduction
What Even is EMDR Therapy?
Chances are you’ve not heard of it. Or maybe you sort of remember the name as mentioned by certain celebrities who have experienced it, like Miley Cyrus, Prince Harry, Sandra Bullock, and Lady Gaga – just to name a few.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy is a highly researched and evidence based therapy grounded in both psychology and neurology.
It was initially developed as a gold standard treatment for PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) but it has since been found to be effective as a treatment for numerous other psychological conditions including:
Phobias
Depression
Anxiety
Addiction
What’s Actually Involved in EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy involves the use of bilateral stimulation where the therapist provides the client with alternating sensory input by guiding eye movements and/or tapping to activate both left and right brain hemispheres.
This process is believed to help a person re-process a distressing memory by reducing the overall level of distress associated with it. EMDR therapy can also help a person to ‘unlearn’ an unhelpful belief that has become linked with the disturbing memory and replace it one that is more adaptive add rooted in the present, not the past.
It’s Not Just For ‘Life and Death’ Traumas
Whilst the formal criteria for PTSD includes having experienced direct exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence, known as ‘big T’ trauma, the good news is that even if you are fortunate enough not to have experienced this intensity of trauma, you can still benefit from EMDR therapy.
‘Small t’ traumas including traumas of omission is a term used to describe distressing life events that would not allow a person to meet criteria for a PTSD diagnosis but nonetheless can have a massive impact on someones emotional wellbeing. Some examples of these include:
Bullying
Academic struggles
Not having your emotional needs met by caregivers & emotional neglect
Relationship breakups
Death of a pet
Chronic illness
Disruption to a healthy parent-child bond
Benefits of EMDR Therapy
EMDR therapy allows you to move beyon your ‘logical’ brain. Instead of just focusing on ways to reframe and challenge thoughts that you logically know are untrue, EMDR allows you to get to a place where what you want to feel and what you logically know to be true, finally also feels true.
For example, you might logically understand that you’ve survived a near fatal car crash, but you still feel overwhelmed with panic each time you sit in a car: EMDR therapy can help you get to a place where you both know you are safe now and actually feel like you are safe now so that you can access the freedom to drive again.
Or you might logically understand that you are not a bad person for upholding healthy boundaries at work, but still feel so guilty every time you have to say no. EMDR therapy could get you to a place where you both logically know you are not responsible for keeping others happy at your expense, but also feel that this is true, allowing you to opt out of people-pleasing behaviours that led to burning out.
Resources
For more information about EMDR therapy, visit the EMDR Association of Australia’s website here.
