Therapy is filled with acronyms that can be both overwhelming and confusing. Today we are going to dive deeper into one that you may have come across on social media or in books, like Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score.
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based, highly researched therapy that is used to help people recover from trauma and or other distressing life events. It has been shown to be effective for PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other disorders.
The theory behind EMDR is complex, but I have found the following explanation from EMDRIA, the national EMDR association, to be one of the most helpful in understanding:
Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyzes and controls behavior and emotion). While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, they may not be processed without help. Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create feelings of overwhelm, of being back in that moment, or of being "frozen in time."
EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved.
Interested in exploring if EMDR is right for you? Reach out to Modern Solutions Counseling today!