What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) has been gaining more and more attention recently and people are turning to it for their preferred modality of therapy treatment. The therapy model uses eye movements to help reprocess traumatic events or even emotionally difficult information or memories. Here are 5 Things you didn’t know about EMDR…
If you were a fly on the wall it might look like hypnosis but the process is very different. Traditionally you will follow the therapists fingers with your eyes as he/she makes multiple passes back and forth. While doing this the therapist will help you internally walk through whatever information has been difficult for you to cope with or “get over.” The process is actually quite simple and clients can generally get the hang of it rather quickly.
It’s basic premise is using bilateral stimulation (both sides of the body) to process the difficult information or memory. Put simply, when you move the left side of your body, its actually the right side of your brain that is doing the work. When you move the right side of your body, it’s the left side of your brain doing the work. The right side of the brain houses our emotions and the left side houses our logic (reasoning.) When something traumatic (or emotionally difficult) happens, we likely process it in the emotional side of our brain. Sometimes this information gets stuck and/or flooded and we can’t get our logic brain online (i.e. ever have the experience where you are so mad about something and you know it will likely make it worse if you respond but you just can’t help it? You shoot off that text or email anyway? This is a common example of when your emotional side is flooded and you are struggling to get your logic side online.)
Its fast! EMDR is like traditional talk therapy on fast forward. Language is actually a pretty slow process as far as brain functions are concerned. For us to take information in our brain, turn it into language and give it to someone else and then that person to take that information, process it, turn their response into language and give it back to us, is actually a pretty slow process for the brain. Often during a session using EMDR there is much less talking than traditional talk therapy. When you are driving into work each morning, you have millions of thoughts that bounce all over the place. If I was sitting in your passenger seat, and you had to tell me everything you were thinking, you would have a fraction of those thoughts. So we take the slow part out of the equation.
This doesn’t mean you aren’t talking or sharing with your therapist. You certainly are and in so many ways EMDR is much more connective and things that wouldn’t have necessarily been shared are often discovered and processed. It’s just a little different than traditional talk therapy.
It’s evidence based to treat PTSD which means there is empirical evidence that it works! But it also works on traumas that don’t meet the full criteria for PTSD. Trauma on the brain can be the more obvious events such as war, abuse, natural disaster, mass shootings, or anything else that threatens the life or wellbeing of you or someone you care about. There are also traumas that are less commonly labeled in society as traumas such as infidelity, bullying, abandonment by a parent or spouse, job conflicts including loss of a job, death of a loved one, or even interpersonal conflicts.
It isn’t a separate fee for doing EMDR in your sessions. Many people ask “how much does it cost?” EMDR is a treatment modality clinicians use like “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” or “Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.” Simply put it is your session with your therapist, it is just the modality they use to treat your symptoms. So if you are using your insurance, it is covered under your mental health benefit if you have a mental health therapy benefit in your plan.
Have more questions? Shoot us an email and we’d be happy to talk with you further.