What is EMDR therapy?

One method used in mental health treatment is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR therapy. This technique has you processing painful memories by making particular eye movements. Your recovery from trauma or other upsetting life situations is the aim of EMDR. When compared to other forms of therapy, EMDR is still relatively young. In 1989, the first clinical experiment examining EMDR took place. Since EMDR’s creation, several clinical trials have demonstrated its efficacy and ability to assist a patient more quickly than many other approaches.

What conditions and problems does EMDR treat?

EMDR is most commonly used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is also used by mental health professionals to treat the following conditions:

  • Anxiety disorders include social anxiety/phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias.
  • Major depressive disorder, persistent depression, and depression associated with disease are the three types of depression disorders.
  • Dissociative disorders include depersonalization or derealization disorder and dissociative identity disorder, sometimes known as amnesia.
  • Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder are examples of eating disorders.
  • Gender dysphoria is the belief that the gender you were assigned at birth is not the same as your actual gender.
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorders: hoarding disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
  • Three different types of personality disorders are identified: antisocial, avoidant, and borderline.
  • Acute stress disorder, PTSD, and adjustment disorder are examples of trauma disorders.

Stages of EMDR Healing Therapy?

There are eight phases of EMDR treatment. These phases take place across numerous sessions, with portions of various phases occasionally being used in a single session. Phases 1 and 2 usually only occur in the early sessions, however phases 3 through 8 are included in several sessions later. This is an example of this.

It often takes three to six sessions to address a single upsetting incident or memory. Traumas that are more complicated or have lasted longer may require eight to twelve sessions, or perhaps more. Typically, a session lasts one hour to ninety minutes. The eight stages consist of:

  1. Patient history and data collection. During this phase of the procedure, your healthcare professional will compile personal and medical history data. This aids them in assessing your chances of benefiting from EMDR. It also entails inquiring about your goals for this treatment as well as any distressing or disturbing memories and situations that you would want to have a focus on.
  2. Preparation. Your healthcare professional will discuss with you the details of EMDR sessions and what to anticipate during this period. During sessions, they will also discuss with you what to concentrate on to feel more secure and solid. They’ll provide you resources to aid with emotional self-control.
  3. Evaluation. Your healthcare professional will assist you in identifying themes and particular memories that you may like to focus on during the reprocessing phase of the procedure at this phase. They will assist you in identifying the good ideas you would like to have about yourself moving ahead, as well as the negative beliefs about how the trauma has affected you.
  4. Desensitizing. Your healthcare professional will assist you in identifying one or more particular unpleasant pictures, ideas, feelings, or bodily sensations in order to help activate your memory during this phase. They will support you in noticing your feelings and any fresh insights or ideas you have about what you’re going through during the reprocessing process.
  5. Installation. Your healthcare professional will ask you to concentrate on the empowering thought you wish to instill when you go through a memory at this stage. This affirmation may have come from anything you stated in phase three or something fresh that came to mind in phase four.
  6. Body Scan. Your medical professional will ask you to concentrate on your physical sensations, particularly any symptoms that arise when you recall or relive the traumatic event. This stage aids in tracking your overall EMDR therapy progress. Your symptoms should lessen during sessions until they eventually disappear (or as near to none as feasible). Your reprocessing is over after your symptoms disappear.
  7. Closure. This stage creates a link between subsequent sessions. Your healthcare practitioner will discuss with you throughout this period what to expect in between sessions. In addition, they will discuss self-soothing techniques with you, particularly if you experience unpleasant thoughts or emotions in between sessions. A session won’t stop until you feel more secure and at ease. In order to discuss any fresh insights you may have on the upsetting incident or events, they may also ask you to write them down for your next session.
  8. Reassessment. During the last stage of EMDR therapy, you and your healthcare professional discuss your current state of health and development. This might assist in determining if you require more sessions or how to modify your therapeutic goals and expectations. They will also assist you in exploring potential future experiences and how you would wish to respond given your current understanding of yourself and your traumatic history.

Benefits & Risks

Advantages of EMDR?

EMDR has several advantages:

  • It works. Numerous research studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of EMDR.
  • Compared to other types of therapy, it usually has a quicker effect. Compared to other kinds of treatment, people who receive EMDR often start experiencing gains considerably sooner.
  • There is less homework involved. Journaling or other sorts of homework are usually assigned outside of treatment sessions in various forms of therapy. Typically, EMDR is only recording any ideas or thoughts you choose to discuss in your subsequent session (if and when such thoughts occur).
  • Usually, it’s less tense. Processing and overcoming your trauma is the main goal of EMDR. Some techniques ask you to recount unpleasant experiences and even relive them.

Disadvantages

Compared to other therapeutic approaches, EMDR does have certain disadvantages.

  • It is only effective for ailments brought on by stressful events. EMDR is unlikely to be helpful if your mental health issue is the result of an accident, a hereditary disorder, or some physical impact on your brain.
  • It’s still theoretical as to why it works. EMDR was discovered by chance. Despite the evidence that it is effective, experts are still unable to properly explain why it works.
  • It’s an innovative technique. While other types of treatment have been around for much longer, EMDR was created in 1989. Before specialists can determine whether EMDR is a long-term solution or whether patients require more therapy years or decades later, further study is required.

EMDR has extremely little risk. The most typical adverse effects are depressive sensations or thoughts in between sessions. You may learn more about them and how to respond to them from your healthcare professional.

Parting Note

A relatively new, yet highly successful, technique for treating traumatic memories in humans is EMDR treatment. Children as well as adults of various ages can choose this choice. Even while this therapy is most commonly used to treat PTSD, further study indicates that it can also be used to treat a wide range of other illnesses. This therapeutic approach can be quite beneficial for those who are dealing with traumatic experiences from their past, even if it cannot solve all mental health issues.