EMDR
After two years of talk therapy with my psychologist. It is time to try more. We have started EMDR.
What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
It’s a trauma-informed psychotherapy designed to help your nervous system finish processing experiences that got stuck. At first the eye movements made me feel nauseous. We used tapping, as well. There are also some meditations I do that I use tapping with. Along with the EMDR practices I do with my psychologist I also do with a manifestation practice, To Be Magnetic. If you want more information about them you can head to my Things that Inspire page on my website.
Normally, your brain digests experiences, files them away, and moves on.
But overwhelming events can jam the system.
When that happens, memories don’t live in the past. They live in the body.
EMDR helps the brain unstick those memories so they can be stored properly instead of being constantly re-experienced through anxiety, panic, shame, or numbness.
During EMDR, a therapist guides you to briefly focus on:
a distressing memory
the thoughts and beliefs attached to it
the emotions and body sensations that come up
At the same time, you engage in bilateral stimulation. This can be:
following the therapist’s fingers with your eyes
alternating taps on your hands
or tones that switch from ear to ear
This left-right stimulation mimics the brain’s natural processing rhythms, similar to what happens during REM sleep.
Your brain does the work. You don’t have to relive or analyse every detail.
People often expect it to feel intense or dramatic. It usually isn’t.
Common experiences include:
images shifting or fading
emotions loosening their grip
body tension releasing
sudden insights without effort
a sense of distance from the memory
The memory remains, but the charge drains out of it.
EMDR is best known for treating trauma and PTSD, but it’s also used for:
childhood trauma and attachment wounds
anxiety and panic
phobias
grief
chronic shame or negative self-beliefs
complex trauma where there wasn’t one single event
It’s especially helpful when you know something intellectually but your body refuses to believe it.
It is a hard process. It is bringing up things that I haven’t remembered for a very long time. But I am in a place now where I can see these things and process them. It is also showing me how and why certain aspects of myself are the way they are. It is giving me a greater understanding of myself. It is almost a feeling of relief when another piece of the puzzle falls in place in my mind.
I would suggest reading up more on this process. I recommend it for anyone who is feeling stuck in their therapy and looking for more. For those who love going layer by layer and getting to the deeper levels of the psyche and into who you truly are.
You might just meet yourself in the process.