“At first glance, Eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR) appears to approach psychological issues in an unusual way. It does not rely on talk therapy or medications. Instead, EMDR uses a natural function of the body, Rapid Eye Movement (REM), as its basis and Dr. Francine Shapiro, the founder of EMDR, found that just 3 x 90 minute sessions could alleviate symptoms of PTSD in more than 77% of the patients she treated.

The human mind uses REM during sleep time to help it process daily emotional experiences and when trauma is extreme, this process breaks down and REM sleep doesn’t bring the usual relief from distress. The EMDR process is thought to produce an advanced stage of the REM processing. As the brain, via the eye-movement, processes troubling images and feelings, resolution of the issue can be achieved by dampening the power of emotionally charged memories.

EMDR therapy is not limited to simply taking symptoms away. It addresses the past, present and future. The goal is to allow the person to achieve a complete state of emotional health. It has also been used to help athletes, performers and executives to achieve a state of “peak performance.”

It is important to note that prior to treatment beginning, your therapist and you will create a ‘safe place’ – somewhere your mind can drift to, if, during your treatment, you become distressed at recalling the event. 

WHAT HAPPENS IN A THERAPY SESSION?

Your Therapist will move her fingers or object to focus on, back and forth in front of your face and ask you to follow these hand motions with your eyes. At the same time, the EMDR therapist will have you recall a disturbing event. This will include the emotions and body sensations that go along with it.

Gradually, the therapist will guide you to shift your thoughts to more pleasant ones. Sometimes we use alternatives to finger movements, such as hand or toe tapping, light beams or musical tones.

Throughout the process, the client is awake, alert and in control at all times. No trance state is induced, no suggestions are made, and the changes that occur are the result of the client’s own innate processes.

EMDR weakens the effect of negative emotions and the ‘charge’ behind emotions when recalling the event. Before and after each EMDR treatment, your therapist will ask you to rate your level of distress. The hope is that your disturbing memories will become less disabling.

After an EMDR session, there may be a strong sense of relief, a feeling of openness or even euphoria.

HOW MANY EMDR SESSIONS WILL I NEED?

As with any treatment or therapy, each person is different, however treatment can be very rapid, but, the number of sessions will vary, according to the complexity of the issues being dealt with. In general, the more isolated the traumatic memory being treated, the shorter the treatment tends to be.  For individuals with a history of multiple painful experiences and years of feeling bad about them, a number of EMDR sessions in conjunction with cognitive therapy approaches, Clinical Hypnotherapy and or NLP therapy may be needed.

Generally speaking, there are roughly 8 steps to completing treatment. Sessions can range anywhere between 3-12. however this is down to individual responses to treatment and history of complexity.

Following EMDR processing, clients generally report that the emotional distress related to the memory has been eliminated, or greatly decreased, and that they have gained important insights or breakthroughs in their thinking having a huge positive impact on their lives. Importantly, these emotional and cognitive changes usually result in healthy spontaneous behavioral and personal change, which are further enhanced with standard EMDR procedures.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS EMDR?

EMDR is a safe therapy, with no negative side effects. Researchers have shown the treatment’s effectiveness in published reports that consolidated data from several studies.

THE SCIENCE OF EMDR

Brain scans have clearly demonstrated pre-post changes after EMDR therapy, including increases in hippocampal volume, which have implications for memory storage. The bottom line of EMDR outcome research is that clinical change can be both profound and efficient”.

SOURCES: Psychology Today and PTSD UK 2019.