What is EMDR?

So much scientific research has gone into EMDR, making it an approach therapists can vouch for, but what is EDMR exactly? We know that EMDR helps treat PTSD, phobias, anxiety disorders, and disturbing memories in a way that is very different from traditional talk therapy. So what is EMDR therapy all about?

EMDR uses a technique called “bilateral stimulation” which is a method that stimulates both sides of the brain. In EMDR, this is achieved through eye-movements, holding tappers that buzz from left to right hand and tapping. While this may sound a little woo-woo, the science speaks for itself.

One of the main reasons bilateral stimulation works so well is because it plays on our survival instincts. In the face of an actual threat, we have no space or time to stop and look around. Instead, our instincts kick in and we go into fight or flight. In abuse, however, we are usually unable to fight or flee, so we freeze or fawn. Each of these survival options are built into our biology and are crucial for surviving immediate danger, but what happens when the threat is no longer there?

Our brains are learning machines, so when we endure something horrific, the brain works overtime to protect us from ever encountering a situation like that again. Fight, flight, freeze and fawn may look like anger outbursts, self-sabotage, dissociation and people-pleasing. And the part that sends people to therapy is that these responses will happen in reaction to benign situations. Although benign on the outside, these moments feel incredibly threatening to our neural networks on the inside, which is why we call them “triggers.”

Since out brain’s main goal is to keep us alive and safe, our mind is just trying to be astute to any potential sign of harm, so give yourself grace here.

In survival, our brain has to conserve energy so the left and right brain does not have the privilege of being “on” together. Instead our nervous system does all the heavy lifting, resulting in that fight / flight / freeze / fawn response. When our left and right brain is activated though, we are able to think from a non-survival place. Bbilateral stimulation communicates to the brain that we are safe.

EMDR allows clients to process disturbing memories safely through bilateral stimulation. This eventually results in clients being able to observe past-traumatic experiences and encounter “triggers” without a physical and emotional reaction from their survival networks.

This is huge for traumatized people. And, it gets better.

Like I said, our brains are learning machines, so during a trauma our brain is trying to make sense of something that in no way makes sense. In an effort to understand how something this bad could happen to us, we internalize messages / explanations, some of which are directly told to us and some of which are our minds best effort at learning. This is why trauma not only results in behavioral issues from an overactive nervous system, but also in deeply hurtful, yet deeply held beliefs about self and the world.

“I am inherently evil.”" “I am worthless.” “I am at more core, unloveable.” “All people at their core are evil.” “People always have a hidden agenda.” “Being alive is too dangerous to make living worth it.” “Things usually are too good to be true.”

EMDR weakens these messages so that people no longer have to also carry shame, self-hatred, illogical guilt and hopelessness on top of their biological distress. For this reason, EMDR is a dynamic approach that bridges the cognitive with the emotional, through science.

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