EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing)
EMDR is a technique developed to treat the symptoms that make life difficult when we have experienced shock, suffering and sorrow. The aim of EMDR is to free you from your distressing symptoms. The length of treatment usually depends on the number of traumatic events in your life and their complexity.
Unlike other trauma-focused therapies, EMDR does not require you to give detailed descriptions of the event if you don't want to, require extended exposure to traumatic memories, or demand that you complete homework.
Symptoms that EDMR can help with
Do you frequently have upsetting thoughts and feelings about something that happened to you?
Experience very strong feelings of distress, including physical discomfort, when you are reminded of it?
Do you feel "jumpy" or are easily startled?
Have you decided to avoid anything that triggers these feelings?
Perhaps you cannot sleep, you are more tired or irritable than usual and have difficulty in concentrating.
Have recurring intense dreams or nightmares?
Do you feel different, or distant from other people?
About EMDR
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress may follow a short-lived but extremely traumatic event such a a road accident, unexpected physical attack, childbirth ordeal or natural disaster. They may also be experienced by people who have suffered repeated traumatic or humiliating events over a longer period of time such as physical or emotional abuse in childhood, domestic abuse or neglect. EMDR has been shown to be effective with post-traumatic stress, but is also thought to be helpful for people with obsessive or compulsive behaviours, jealousy, performance anxiety, some sexual difficulties and persistent pain.
The underlying assumption of EMDR is that we human beings have a natural tendency towards mental health. Most of the time our bodies manage new information and experiences without us being aware of it. Overwhelming events can overload our brain leaving disturbing memories unprocessed. The adaptive information processing (AIP) model suggests that such trauma is stored in the brains neural network.
See: Animation to explain EMDR therapy and trauma to adults
Created by htpps://emdrassociation.co.uk
Sounds, smells, sights or sensations stimulate the brain to search the memory for associations. These may be linked to the unprocessed memories that feel live, but are out of tune with normal daily events. Traumatic memories can be triggered when you experience events that are similar to what happened before e.g. a workman who heard a car backfire and threw himself under the bushes in my front garden. He was embarrassed and explained that since serving in the army he often found himself reacting to unexpected sounds in that automatic way.
EMDR allows us to access the unprocessed material; there are channels of association between memories e.g. the unexpected death of a loved pet may also be associated with the sudden death of a member of the family when you were a child. EMDR helps create the connections between your brain's memory networks, allowing your brain to reprocess the traumatic memory in a natural way. Once this is done, you will adapt your responses so that they fit with your present life experience.
Treatment
Treatment usually begins with a thorough assessment of your history and current symptoms; I will complete questions about symptoms and examples of dissociation. if you are very distressed by your memories, we may take a different approach.
Part of the preparation includes identifying some images, objects, sounds or pictures that will sooth you. You are introduced to the types of bilateral stimulation that we can use online.
When we agree you are ready, bi-lateral stimulation is used for desensitisation. I will invite you to move your eyes from side to side, listen to sounds or gentle taps in a rhythmic left-right pattern e.g. you might be asked to watch a hand or moving light alternating from left to right and back again, or listen to sounds that alternate between your left and right ears. This accelerates the brain's information processing system and helps you to process negative emotional memories of past experiences. The symptoms you have experienced will gradually settle. You don't forget your memories; you just don't feel so distressed by them anymore.