What is Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychological therapy that helps people who have traumatic memories that affect them. Individuals suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can find that their symptoms such as flashbacks, upsetting thoughts or images, depression or anxiety reduce with EMDR treatment.
EMDR uses eye movements and sometimes audio tones, or even small hand-held buzzers to repeatedly stimulate the left and right sides (hemispheres) of your brain to properly process traumatic intense and debilitating memories into simply memories.
What are the principles of EMDR?
If an individual has a traumatic event their brain may be unable to fully process what is going on and they may experience an overwhelming feeling. The individual may feel stuck with the memory feeling very intense and vivid. The full amount of distress the person felt at the time of the traumatic experience can be re-lived from what they sa, heard and smelt at the time over and over again.
The psychological therapy EMDR helps the sufferer reprocess the memory in a way that it is no longer so intense. EMDR also helps to desensitise the individual from the emotional impact of the memory allowing them to not experience such strong feelings when the event is thought about.
The EMDR process
EMDR is carried out by asking the individual to recall the traumatic event and at the same time they are asked to move their eyes from side-to-side and a sound is made in each of their ears alternatively or a tap on each hand alternatively is given.
To effectively stimulate the “stuck” processing system in the brain these side-to-side sensations help to reprocess the information more like an ordinary memory, reducing its intensity.
The EMDR effect can be compared to the natural REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, when your eyes move rapidly from side to side as the brain processes the events of the day. Researchers believe that EMDR is effective due to the concentration on another task whilst processing a traumatic memory gives the brain more work to carry out. If the brain is not fully focused on processing the memory it then starts to become less vivid. This process allows the individual to distance themselves from the distressing memory and begin to remember it in a more manageable and helpful way.
It should be noted that EMDR needs to be delivered by professionally trained psychologists as it ia a complex therapeutic process.
Is EMDR therapy approved and how effective is it?
EMDR is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) with studies showing that the treatment can significantly decrease PTSD symptoms.
EMDR treatment
The treatment of individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is what EMDR is best known for but it can also be used to help with the treatment of many other mental health conditions. Individuals suffering with depression or anxiety and in particular where there has been a difficult life event can benefit from EMDR treatment. Life traumatic events such as bullying, sexual or emotional abuse, violent crime, social humiliation or the sudden bereavement of a loved one that is hard to recover from can be helped via EMDR therapy.
What age can you have EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy is appropriate for adults, young people and children. Younger children can find it difficult to fully engage with some types of talking therapies, so EMDR can be a simpler, effective alternative.
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