If you have never experienced EMDR before, it is hard to conceptualize what the process is like. You probably have a good idea of what talk therapy is like, either from personal experience or from seeing it depicted in movies or television. Since most people haven’t been exposed to EMDR in the same way, it can seem pretty mysterious. I would like to help demystify the process by sharing an in-depth description of it.
Assessment
EMDR treatment starts with an assessment of whether or not EMDR is an appropriate treatment for the problem you would like to address. This will likely include a discussion about your problem, current stressors you are experiencing, and how you are managing in your daily life. If it seems that EMDR would be appropriate, we will begin to create a timeline of your life. On this timeline, we note remarkable negative events and remarkable positive events. You will not have to discuss the negative events in detail.
Resources
Once we have completed the timeline of your life, we move on to identifying positive “resources” in your life. The first is an imagined “peaceful place” that can be based on a real place, or entirely made up. After this is established, we also identify nurturing, protective, and wise/spiritual figures. These can be people you know or knew, people you know of, famous people, fictional characters, or even animals. It is very fun to see people use their creativity during this phase of treatment.
Treatment Planning and EMDR Processing
Next, if you have more than one issue you would like to work on, we will work together to prioritize your concerns and determine the sequence of what you would like to address. To begin processing traumatic events, we will start by choosing one memory that you would like to work on. If this memory is particularly distressing, we might start with another preparation technique in order to make processing this memory more manageable.
When we move into processing, you will identify an image, the emotions, the body sensations, and a belief about yourself that are associated with that memory. From there, we begin bilateral stimulation (usually alternating gentle vibrations in your hands or under your legs), and your only job is to allow whatever happens to happen without censoring it. You are welcome to take a pause whenever you like. I will help guide your process and intervene as needed. I will make sure you feel very safe and comfortable before we begin and as we proceed.
Results
You may notice changes to the image you started with, your emotions, your body sensations, and/or your belief about yourself. People often come to spontaneous insights that they have not been previously able to access. You will start to think about the event from a different perspective. The emotional intensity of the memory will decrease until it no longer feels distressing in the present. Your brain and body will process the memory and store it away appropriately in your long term memory.
During this process, people are often amazed at the rapid healing their brains and bodies are capable of. EMDR can lead to a tremendous sense of peace and freedom. You don’t have to be held back by events from the past. You can freely live your life in the present.
If you would like to learn more about EMDR and see if it could be a good fit to help you, I welcome you to call me or message me for a free 20-minute phone consultation.