What is EMDR?

 

EMDR is short for "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing." It is a powerful technique that utilizes the information processing system of the brain. This may be suggested if you are having difficulty laying something "to rest" or putting it behind you.

Think of a computer for a moment. Your brain is like the hard drive of your system and responsible for sorting, filing, deleting, and transferring information. Like computers, the brain sometimes gets hung up and doesn't finish processing information so it can be either "saved" or "deleted."

This can occur under circumstances that break through the defenses and involve strong negative emotion. Because the brain processes this type of information differently than it does ordinary events, it can "crash"your system, so to speak. EMDR "reboots" the brain's information processing system and helps you rapidly sort out what happened, allowing the brain to disregard information that's no longer relevant (e.g. still seeing the negative event in your mind's eye) and to keep what is relevant (e.g. feeling better, knowing that it's over and that you did the best you could).

Although it's very complicated to explain, EMDR basically works by alternately stimulating each side of the body. The right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. Each time we hear, see, or feel something involving one side, the corresponding hemisphere has to "process" it or decide what to do with it. When the brain is kept busy taking in information from first one side of the body and then the other, both hemispheres whirr along at a rapid clip and in doing so, keep information moving, too. This means that the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations bound up in the trauma begin to "thaw out," so to speak, and process the way they need to. This gives the person a very clear sense that the trauma is over and in the past.

Now for a moment, think about taking a walk. With a long enough walk, chances are what you're thinking about and feeling at the beginning of your walk isn't the same thing you're thinking about or feeling at the end of your walk. That's because walking is similar to a mini-form of EMDR because it involves using first one side of your body, then the other as you take each step. While walking and other forms of exercise are beneficial (with your doctor's blessing),
EMDR also has serious disadvantages and should only be done with an EMDR-trained mental health professional. Never try doing EMDR on your own unless your therapist has given permission for you to do so. Neither client nor therapist can anticipate what will come up during EMDR, so it's important that the therapist have a wide variety of skills ready to handle anything. This is why a therapist doing this work should be trained by the EMDR Institute--the Institute teaches therapists how to handle unpredictable complications that might arise.