Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

Interested in learning more about EMDR or working with one of our EMDR-trained therapists?

I often ask my clients, how does talk therapy work? Researchers have some idea, but a clear understanding isn’t available. EMDR is similar: we have some good ideas, but the exact processes are not totally understood.

When you cut yourself, your body knows how to heal this wound. Your brain is similar. But, if some debris or other object is stuck in the wound, your cut doesn’t heal in the most effective way- it may get infected or cause intense pain. EMDR removes the “debris” from the brain, allowing it to heal.

My favorite part of being an EMDR clinician is getting out of the way of this healing process- it’s not about feedback or my assessment of your thoughts or experience. Witnessing nearly spontaneous healing is incredible.

When we experience a stressful or traumatic situation, our bodies are flooded with the stress hormones adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine. As a result, information is stored in the brain in a way that isn’t at all like short-term memory information like where you parked your car or what you wore to work yesterday.

These traumatic or stressful memories are now stored with the same thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations that also occurred at the same time as the event. The result includes flashbacks, negative self-referencing beliefs, fear, anxiety, depression, nightmares, and many other stressful or debilitating symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

What is trauma?

How does EMDR work?

What does EMDR look like?

The short answer is: not much like talk therapy as you probably know it.

After getting to know one another, the therapist will help you identify memories that are highly traumatic or stressful, formative in the way you see yourself, or particularly charged.

While you focus on this event, you’ll notice related thoughts, negative beliefs about yourself, images, and bodily sensations. The therapist will then start the process of desensitization- this may look like eye movements from side to side, alternating sounds in your left and right ears, or taps or buzzes on your right and left sides.

You’ll notice changes in feelings, beliefs, sensations, images, or insights as you go through these right and left stimulations, eventually diminishing the negative experience associated with the original incident.

Will EMDR work for me?

EMDR has been shown to be highly effective in treating PTSD or other symptoms related to trauma.

You don’t have to have experienced “Big T” trauma like sexual violence, war, natural disasters, or other catastrophic events for EMDR to work, though. It is equally effective for “small t” trauma: events like rejection, disappointing news like your parents’ divorce, witnessing something stressful like a fight, or a change in life circumstances like a move.

One of my favorite uses of EMDR is unweaving our negative beliefs about ourselves. If you asked your crush out in the 5th grade and they rejected you and made fun of you to their friends, you may have begun to believe that you were unlovable. Every disappointment, rejection, breakup, or mistake may trigger the belief that you’re unlovable, despite your rational understanding that this doesn’t make sense.

EMDR can help with this too!