What is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)?
One of the most researched and successful methods for healing trauma memory might sound like an idea that some mad scientist thought up. But to the mental health community’s surprise, it works! Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (see why we shorten it to EMDR?) works very well with a qualified therapist who is well trained and experienced in using it.
EMDR is a form of psychotherapy, pioneered by Francine Shapiro, PhD, that has proven to help people who struggle with PTSD symptoms. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation of the brain through the movement of the eyes, sound, or touch to help process trauma. By alternately stimulating both sides of the body, this therapy works to help process trauma that is stored in neural networks of the brain and the body. It literally helps to release the “charge” that keeps a memory of past wounds impacting the present. But what does that mean to you? Here’s a simplified model that works for most.
We all have regular, weekly (if not daily) fears or upsets – a driver who cuts you off, a rude co-worker, a stubbed toe – that are like little chunks of ice that flow through our emotional brain and eventually get processed and dealt with in a healthy way. The ice chips we can usually handle (especially if our brain is fairly balanced). These ice-chip-sized memories work their way through our brain’s system, where they get melted, chewed, dissolved, or redistributed, and life returns to normal fairly quickly. This is our brain’s way of helping our mind to move on.
When we are hit with a tragedy or trauma, it’s like being hit with a heavy block of ice rather than the little ice chips. We can handle and process the chips because, after all, since we were about two years old, we’ve learned that life isn’t exactly fair or perfect. So, a healthy brain deals with it or shrugs it off. Not so with big chucks of pain. Not only does the big chunk of ice stay put, but sometimes it sticks to other ice chunks and turns into an iceberg, especially if there are multiple traumas, a prolonged trauma, or a very severe trauma (soldiers in war; losing multiple friends or family members; a long, frightening bout with cancer; a shocking or painful divorce; 9/11 survivors). This is an oversimplification, but it is a picture of post-traumatic stress disorder. I should mention here that one person’s ice chip could be someone else’s chunk of ice and, depending on a number of factors, can be just as stubborn to melt.
This much pain and shock literally changes your brain, and most people who’ve been there would wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. Then you have an iceberg of collective memories that get stuck in the Basement of Giant Fears and refuse to budge, melt, or go anywhere – even though you’d love nothing more than to have it disappear or, at least, be able to minimize the painful memory to a normal size so your brain can deal with it.
Not all people who suffer get PTSD (though most do experience some form of PTSD for a little while after a trauma, even a relatively minor car accident; however, the trauma might just linger a day, a week, or a month). Some soldiers return from war and, after a reasonable period of time, are able to move forward. Others are not so fortunate, such as the soldiers returning from Iraq (particularly the ones who were in the National Guard, who weren’t prepared for the horrors of war). Some of the ability to rebound faster has to do with genetic predisposition, and some of it involves the amount of trauma and the amount of attachment to the person who was killed or who died. Also, the amount of emotional and relational support that was given during and just after the crisis can play a role in our ability to recover.
Those who probably suffer the most are adults who were abused as children when their brains really didn’t have the resources to deal with such pain, especially if their parents, clergy, or teachers, when told, didn’t respond in soothing and proactive ways. This is often called a sanctuary trauma when a child looked for safety after a traumatizing experience and was turned away. This has a way of driving the original hurt deeper into the soul.
When the iceberg gets lodged, we are hit with unwanted thoughts and memories that may interrupt us at any moment. We’re triggered easily by anything that reminds us of the day that chunk of ice landed in our lives. We have nightmares about every aspect of that iceberg, almost as if our Basement of Giant Fears doesn’t even take a break to sleep. Oh, our brain continues to work around it as best it can, but it’s not the same . . . our brain stays on hyper-alert even when we don’t want to, or mean to be.
Ultimately, EMDR works a bit like a high-powered blender. It breaks up traumatic memories into manageable pieces using a variety of blender blades; recalling painful memories and replacing them with new, improved thoughts (with a trained counselor); slowing down or interrupting the story you’ve been telling yourself (which helps remove some of its power to your brain), and using alternating eye movement, tapping, or sounds (to break up and disrupt thought patterns). Using these methods and more, we sort of whirl, if you will, that big immovable hunk of ice into smaller pieces that can then be distributed through your brain and processed like other normal-sized memories until they melt into the place where typical memories (without major stress reactions attached) are stored. To simplify even more: we help monster memories turn into medium-sized memories, so they can go through the normal brain-drain system.
1. Dr. Earl Henslin, “EMDR Therapy,” THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON JOY (2008):232-234
*Dr. Gray is a certified EMDR practitioner
— Dr. Brent Gray, Clinical Director, Ph.D., L.M.F.T., L.M.H.C., C.A.P.