What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.
Developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. in the late 1980s, EMDR therapy is a widely researched, evidence-based, and neuroscience-informed integrative therapy that was discovered and further refined to reduce distressing emotional symptoms from a multitude of challenging life experiences including isolated and protracted traumatic experiences, phobias, and more.
Using bilateral stimulation (be it eye movements, alternating auditory sounds, or bilateral physical sensations – hand buzzers), EMDR works with and aids your brain’s natural impulse to synthesize and metabolize maladaptive memories and beliefs that are getting in your way.
The goal with EMDR is to get in touch with maladaptively stored feelings, thoughts, and memories that lie at the root of our trigger responses, but the goal with processing is ultimately to move through these feelings and thoughts until we reach a place of zero disturbance when recalling the trauma memory/experience. That resolution combined with the processing of other trauma memories in the same memory channel is what reduces symptomology in our present.
EMDR, simply put, helps your brain and body do what it naturally wants to do: move towards healing.
Here’s a wonderful video from EMDR International Association that further succinctly explains what EMDR is. And finally, here’s some more information about what to expect from EMDR treatment and its attendant phases.
How does EMDR therapy actually therapy work?
EMDR therapy is a phased, brain-based psychotherapy treatment with specific and discreet protocols to support the client’s treatment goals.
When you begin EMDR therapy, your therapist will conduct a thorough clinical interview to understand your personal history, your current triggers, and your treatment goals, as well as assess for what preparatory work may need to happen before beginning memory reprocessing.
Then, using bi-lateral stimulation – this can look like side-to-side eye movements that cross the brain’s hemispheres, alternating audio tones, alternating taps/buzzes in the hands, or self-tapping (the Butterfly Hug) – your therapist will lead you through a set of resourcing and development exercises to adequately prepare you to begin memory reprocessing.
Once you are ready to move onto the memory reprocessing stage, your therapist will guide you through a series of “targets” – memories identified that correlate to your current, presenting symptoms, and facilitate resolution of these memories for you using EMDR protocols and bi-lateral stimulation until your symptoms are relieved.
Your EMDR therapist may also assign homework in between sessions such as the Weekly Log to help you track symptom relief and current triggers.
Why is EMDR therapy effective at treating trauma?
EMDR’s genesis and initial body of research revolved around its effectiveness and applicability to treat PTSD. In essence, it originated as a trauma treatment modality.
In subsequent decades, research has shown that EMDR is equally effective at treating complex traumatic experiences (versus single incident traumas) and losses. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends EMDR (alongside CBT therapy) as preferred treatment for traumatic experiences resulting in PTSD.
What issues can EMDR therapy address?
EMDR can effective in treating a broad range of issues, including:
- Anxiety
- Attachment Trauma
- Betrayal Trauma
- Birth Trauma
- Childhood Trauma
- Complex Trauma
- C-PTSD
- Depression
- Developmental Trauma
- Eating Disorders
- Emotional Abuse
- First Gen Trauma
- First Responder Trauma
- Gaslighting
- Grief and Mourning
- Intergenerational Trauma
- Medical Trauma
- Military/Combat Trauma
- Narcissistic Abuse
- OCD
- Pre- and Post-Natal Trauma
- PTSD
- Racial Trauma
- Relational Trauma
- Relationship Strain
- Religious & Spiritual Trauma
- Sexual Trauma
- Vicarious Trauma
- And more...
FAQ’s about EMDR:
Absolutely! Our EMDR-trained Evergreen EMDR therapists can balance your desire for EMDR reprocessing work with talk therapy sessions. In fact, this is often encouraged to help you integrate your work! We’re happy to work with you to design a style of therapy that best suits you and your clinical goals.
As long as your other therapist is a general talk therapist and not treating you with EMDR therapy, you can absolutely see both providers at the same time. In fact, this is called adjunctive EMDR work. Meaning, that when and if you need EMDR to support your clinical work with your regular talk therapist, clients can come to us for intensive EMDR treatment to help you move through “stuck” places in your clinical work. We’re also happy to collaborate care with your regular therapist when you come to see us for talk therapy so you can get two sets of clinical eyes on your case for the best care possible.
As of September 2022, we have EMDR therapists who are providing EMDR in person and online.
EMDR is absolutely still effective when delivered online! Indeed, growing bodies of research suggest that EMDR therapy is still very effective when provided online. How and why can it still be effective? In short, EMDR relies on bilateral stimulation of the brain’s hemispheres as part of the effectiveness of the protocol. This can look like side-to-side eye movements that cross the brain’s hemispheres, alternating audio tones, or alternating taps/buzzes in the hands. Any of these modalities can be done in-person as well as remotely if clients are willing to get a little creative and purchase this product we recommend called TheraTappers (note: we have no affiliation for them; we just appreciate their product a lot!). These tappers create the bilateral stimulation that’s needed to make EMDR effective and you have them with you at your home while you see your EMDR therapist for telehealth sessions. Your EMDR therapist will give you the tutorial of the tappers, help you calibrate the settings each session depending on which phase of EMDR treatment you’re in, and will cue you to turn them on and off or change the settings if needed.
What if I’m Not Ready?
If you don’t feel quite ready to book a complimentary consult call yet, that’s completely fine.
We don’t want you to feel pressured and we know that the choice to seek out therapy can feel difficult.
Part of you wants to do it, and another part of you is, perhaps, scared to begin because of the feelings you might have to finally feel.
Or a part of you questions whether or not you can even be helped at all.
Whatever the reason, no matter how ready or not ready you feel to begin therapy, we want you to have the information you need to make an informed choice.
So, to that end, please explore the additional information below to learn more about us and how we can help you.
We’ll be here whenever you’re ready to reach out for support.
