The human brain has an incredible capacity to heal from difficult experiences in life. Sometimes though, particularly challenging and traumatic experiences, especially those that are overwhelming and unexpected, can result in the brain’s natural healing capacity to get block or stuck meaning it is unable to process these memories. This can also happen when core emotional needs for acceptance and safety are continually not met throughout childhood. When this happens, people can re-experience trauma in the here and now, experiencing difficult emotions and beliefs.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy is a powerful intervention that uses the brain’s natural healing capacity, to process challenging memories, restoring wellbeing. One of the ways EMDR Therapy achieves this is via eye movements, and other forms of bilateral stimulation, that stimulates the natural healing mechanism in the brain. Part of the therapy focuses on the difficult memory, identifying core beliefs and feelings associated with this memory, whilst a person moves their eyes from side to side as they follow the therapists fingers. The eye movements mimic the process during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, the dream phase of sleep, where the brain often naturally processes various experiences.
EMDR Therapy helps to reduce the vividness of the memory, reducing the emotional intensity of the experience and helps to reframe the meaning or belief formed from the original experience to be more adaptive. Most importantly, it does this on a deeper level than just cognitively reframing the belief. EMDR was originally developed to treat PTSD but is now used to treat a wide variety of psychological conditions. It is an evidence-based intervention and endorsed by the World Health Organization for the treatment of PTSD.
EMDR is more than just reprocessing memories. Before using eye movements, initial EMDR phases involve building up resources and strategies to better tolerate difficult emotions and create a sense of safety, understanding parts of yourself and then moving onto processing the memories.
If you are interested in finding out more about EMDR, get in touch with me today.
