Many of us come to therapy feeling stuck with challenging emotions, memories, or experiences that affect our day-to-day lives. Although you are logically aware that these memories and experiences have occured in the past, or that these emotions and sensations are a conditioned hypervigilance, your body and nervous system can still react as if the experience is currently happening.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a gentle therapeutic approach created specifically to help the brain process these difficult experiences. Rather than focusing solely on talking about an experience or feeling, EMDR helps the brain reprocess memories that may be “stuck” in the nervous system. With processing in an adaptive way, memories become part of our story without triggering overwhelming emotions, body sensations, or negative self-beliefs. EMDR can be helpful in treating panic attacks, anxiety disorders, depression, phobias, complicated grief, chronic pain, performance anxiety, eating disorders, sexual and physical abuse trauma, and more.
How Does EMDR Work?
When we have an overwhelming experience, such as trauma, loss, bullying, medical procedures, etc., the brain tends to store the associated memories in a fragmented way. It often gets locked in the brain with the original picture, sounds, thoughts and feelings, which get triggered repeatedly. This often leads to intrusive memories and flashbacks, emotional reactions, body tension, panic, or negative beliefs. EMDR can even be helpful for smaller experiences that have shaped how we see ourselves and the world.
During EMDR therapy, the therapist will guide you in briefly focusing on a memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation. This may include eye movement, auditory tones, physical taps, or hand buzzers. This back and forth stimulation allow the brain to integrate the memory in a way that reduces its emotional intensity and allows new, effective perspectives to develop. Over time, the memory still exists, but without carrying the same emotional charge. Think of it as the brains ability to take past encounters and refresh them with present data.
What happens in an EMDR session?
A first session includes history taking and goal setting to identify all of your current concerns and relevant experiences. Your therapist will then provide various coping skills to ensure you feel safe and supported during reprocessing sessions. You will then decide on a specific memory, belief, or feeling to focus on. During EMDR processing, you are in full control. Emotions and physical sensations may come up, but with the help of your therapist, you will be prepared to safely manage and tolerate these. Once processed, we will focus on integrating these new insights, emotions and beliefs so that current experiences or feelings do not trigger a past response.
A Different Way of Healing
EMDR offers a unique way of allowing the brain and body to naturally move towards healing. Clients report that memories begin to feel more distant, their nervous system feels calmer in situations that once felt overwhelming, and that their beliefs about themselves shift.
Interested in Learning More?
If you’re curious about whether EMDR therapy may be a helpful next step, contact Mindset First Mental Health & Performance Inc. at 905-660-9284 to speak to a licensed therapist. Together, you can explore your goals and determine the best path forward for your healing.