EMDR & Brainspotting Therapy

What Is Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a therapeutic treatment used to process difficult, traumatic, or negative memories. 

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When we experience something stressful and/or shocking, our bodies not only hold onto difficult emotions and associations; they store the uncomfortable physical sensations that were associated with the experience. Through EMDR treatment, the memory is reprocessed and stored in a way that strips it of its dysfunctional effects and adverse sensations.

 

In essence, body-based therapies like EMDR and Brainspotting can help you establish a sense of peace and control over your emotional response to past pains and wounding experiences.

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The History & Efficacy Of EMDR

 

The psychologist Francine Shapiro is the founder and developer of EMDR. Working with clients in therapy who experienced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Shapiro started recognizing a relationship between rapid eye movement and processing stored trauma. In the mid-1980s, she began researching and developing a new approach that allowed clients to meaningfully reprocess traumatic memories through side-to-side eye movements, tapping, and sounds—otherwise known as bilateral stimulation. 

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Since then, Shapiro herself has trained thousands of clinicians in this modality, with the treatment undergoing rigorous clinical trials throughout the 80s and 90s to become an evidence-based approach. Today, EMDR is recognized as a leading trauma treatment by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (USVA), the Department of Defense (USDOD), and a number of international organizations, including the U.K.’s Institute for Health Care and Excellence as well as the World Health Organization (WHO). 

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However, EMDR is not only accepted as a treatment for trauma specifically—it’s been demonstrated to help children, teens, and adults alike in addressing a wide range of challenges. Alongside stress- and trauma-related issues, EMDR has been used to treat anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, depression, chronic illness and medical issues, dissociation, eating disorders, grief and loss, addiction, and other conditions. 

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How Does EMDR Work?

 

Typically, our normal, “regular” memories are processed through the brain’s prefrontal cortex. But when something highly traumatic, stressful, or emotionally activating happens, the nervous system goes haywire. Instead of being properly stored, these memories are processed through the amygdala, or the brain’s fear system, where they often become “stuck,” perpetuating the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response even long after the traumatic experience has taken place. 

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A therapist using EMDR recreates the body’s natural processing mechanisms, taking the painful memory and any negative associations that accompany it, so the trauma can be processed in a healthy way. Bilateral stimulation is achieved through visual, auditory, or touch (tapping) cues that mimic the body’s REM cycle. Using this movement, the highly structured EMDR protocol, and by challenging the negative cognitions and self-beliefs that have developed from the traumatic memory, pain and distress can be effectively neutralized. Coping and stabilization techniques are also taught to support the process.

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There is no requirement to talk through traumatic experiences in EMDR treatment; instead, clients are exposed to tolerable portions of traumatic content in very controlled, safe ways. Though talk therapy is helpful in supporting EMDR protocol, many people find the EMDR process less intimidating and uncomfortable than other talk therapy methods. 

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