3 Ways EMDR Therapy Surprises You
7 minute read.
EMDR Therapy Works
EMDR Therapy, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy, is a highly researched, extremely effective therapeutic approach that helps individuals suffering from symptoms of PTSD, mood disorders, OCD and a whole hell of a lot of other mental health diagnoses. Bottom line, it helps people who are suffering. And it works!
Francine Shapiro, PhD began developing EMDR therapy in the late ‘80s. In her incredible book Getting Past Your Past, she recounts a walk she took in the park (literally). During this walk, she observed an improvement in her anxiety about a specific situation, after moving her eyes back and forth across her line of sight.
In the 30+ years since then, EMDR therapy has developed into a treatment recognized and endorsed by psychiatric, psychological and research associations across the US and internationally.
How does EMDR therapy work?
When we experience something traumatic, the memory is stored in our brain along with the sights, smells, sensations, thoughts and feelings that we were experiencing at that time. So, if you were humiliated and berated by a teacher at age 7, you will remember that humiliation in the way your 7-year-old self did: you will feel small, ashamed and afraid every time you think about it. You may develop fears in later adulthood that stem from this experience.
Have you ever judged yourself for “not being over“ something because it was “so long ago“? Well, if these memories were never reprocessed, they will stay the way they were stored. So in reality, your brain is working just fine, it’s the memory that needs to be addressed.
The processes of EMDR therapy address these stored memories. BLS (bilateral stimulation) stimulates our brain the same way that REM sleep (or dream sleep) does.
In Getting Past Your Past, Dr. Shapiro gives a description of how EMDR therapy works in our brains, in an easy to understand narrative that the layperson can digest, which I will paraphrase below (this is also how I explain EMDR therapy to my clients)…
Imagine you get into a verbal altercation with a coworker. It doesn’t escalate to violence, but you feel your body reacting to the insults and disrespect that you experienced via sweaty palms, red/hot face, elevated heart rate, and other visible signs of anger and activation.
You decide, “Fuck this, I’m going to management tomorrow.” As the hours of the day wear on, you feel yourself calming down, but not enough to have a conversation about the interaction without becoming activated again.
You get home, maybe talk to your partner, or a trusted loved one over the phone. During processing with this close support person, you recall that this coworker has gotten into arguments with others in the past, so you recognize that you don’t need to take it personally (the first “connection” is made).
As the night moves along, you remember that this coworker recently had a sudden death in the family, and that their quality of work had been suffering since then (another connection). You think, “OK, no reason to disrespect me or lash out. I still plan on speaking to management tomorrow, but maybe I will not make as severe a complaint.”
You get some sleep (thankfully sleeping through the night) and you wake up feeling less distressed. You are grateful that after a day like yesterday, you have a short commute to work and an easy morning ahead. You then remember that this coworker’s spouse had been in a terrible car accident a few months prior, leaving their family with one vehicle. This means your coworker needs to take two buses to get to work in the morning (a third connection), which doubles their commute time (a fourth connection).
You notice that you are feeling less anger, and more disappointment and sadness in how the interaction went. You recognize that the person who caused you so much pain and suffering the day before, is incurring their own suffering daily.
Now, by no means is it OK to treat others in the way your coworker treated you yesterday, but at this point, you are able to extend empathy and understanding to this coworker. By now, you’ve decided to ask this coworker if they feel comfortable meeting with you one on one, to see if things can be fixed without anyone’s job and financial security being under threat.
EMDR therapy helps to make these “connections” quickly. In fact, the eye movements that occur during REM sleep are theorized to speed connections along, meaning that after a full nights sleep, we often wake up with clarity around certain situations. How wild is that?
Why EMDR therapy?
Besides it being a widely used evidenced based therapeutic practice, there are many appealing things about EMDR therapy.
For starters, clients do not feel pressured to described every agonizing detail of a traumatic event during session, potentially re-traumatizing themselves. This is because the reprocessing portion of the treatment has the client simply “notice“ the memory, release the emotions around it, and restore the memory with more effective coping tools. There is no need to talk through all of the details.
Secondly, the treatment moves faster than typical talk therapy, which can last for years. This is because the root of the issue can be found relatively quickly, giving you the opportunity to reprocess and gain relief in several sessions, versus over several months. This can save time and money!
Who is appropriate for EMDR therapy?
Although it is heavily utilized for trauma survivors and individuals with a PTSD diagnosis, EMDR therapy can be beneficial for anyone experiencing pain or distress day to day. This includes depression, anxiety, OCD, panic disorder, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, etc.
It can help with stress, perfectionism, people pleasing, phobias, sleep, appetite, relationships, etc. If something is bothering you enough to even briefly disrupt your day, EMDR therapy can help.
Now that you have a better idea of how EMDR therapy works, let's talk about some fun ways in which the evidenced based practice can surprise you.
1. Your symptoms may disappear without you noticing.
Anyone who has had success in treatment can attest to the diminishing or even disappearance of symptoms.
If you have experienced depression, you may be grateful for the increased energy you have and the kinder way you speak to yourself. If you have panic disorder, you may rejoice every time you get into a car without having a panic attack.
Sometimes with EMDR therapy, the symptoms are gone without you even noticing. One day you may ask yourself, “Wait, when was the last time I had a nightmare?” Or, “Did I just walk through that grocery store without one terrifying intrusive thought.” This is one of the many ways you can heal with EMDR therapy.
2. Processing continues to happen between sessions.
In between EMDR therapy sessions, your brain will continue to make the “connections” as described above. This is not unlike talk therapy, wherein “breakthroughs” can happen days after a session occurs. Or, that moment when something finally clicks as your insight grows.
Your therapist will actually remind you of this at the end of every session, encouraging you to journal anything you notice or at least, sit with it and observe.
This processing may happen in the form of dreams, thoughts, and changed feelings you have throughout your day.
3. Letting your unconscious mind take the wheel can be relieving.
Therapy for a person with trauma and/or PTSD can be a stressful, daunting process. You come into therapy because you’re in pain, you may feel that your body betrays you and that your mind functions in a way that makes your life more difficult.
If you are a person living with the lasting effects of trauma, you likely have a dysregulated nervous system. Trauma makes us misinterpret signs around us as threatening, and it is exhausting.
This means that what others perceive as minor or unnoticeable occurrences (ie, the slamming of a door, barking of a dog) can send your vitals (heart rate, BP) reeling. Being activated or “triggered“ like this can leave you feeling afraid, lonely, ashamed and/or angry.
When you are in an EMDR session, you are asked to pay attention while the therapist administers the bilateral stimulation (BLS), and to just let your mind “notice” what comes up. This means that thoughts, memories, physical sensations, and feelings that come up during reprocessing are all “correct.”
In this moment, there is an opportunity to trust your brain again, because it is showing you where the pain lives.
As your body reprocesses and eventually lets go of the pain surrounding these memories, you experience an observable relief in not only trusting your mind and understanding that it was trying to protect you all along, but that with it’s help, you have begun to heal.
Wondering if EMDR therapy has kept up with the changing times? Yes, EMDR therapy can be done virtually. Are you curious if insurance companies reimburse for EMDR therapy? I provide superbills to my clients to aid in the reimbursement process! Don’t let insurance companies limit you. Learn more about navigating out-of-network insurance reimbursement here.
Are you interested giving EMDR therapy a try? I currently offer 90 minute EMDR therapy sessions to clients in Pennsylvania. If you are interested in getting started, schedule a free consultation today.
Thank you for reading!
Email contact@teletherapywithsarah.com with questions/comments/concerns.
I provide therapy to professional millennials from working class backgrounds. I coach “Exploited Therapists” or therapists who have been exploited by managers, bosses and supervisors. I help them build their dream private practices.
Teletherapy in all corners of Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Scranton to Erie to Pittsburgh.
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Pennsylvanians - ready to start therapy? Ready to start coaching? Click here, or reach out to contact@teletherapywithsarah.com for a free 20 minute consultation.
I do not work through insurance, but I provide superbills for EMDR therapy sessions and regular therapy sessions. Check to see if you insurance reimburses with out-of-network providers here.
Very Best,
—Sarah (she/her)
*Disclaimer - This piece was written by a straight, cis, able-bodied, white woman. Intersectionality (coined by lawyer, civil rights advocate, scholar and philosopher Kimberlé Crenshaw) tells us that race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender, etc. that differ from the above identifiers encounter hardship and oppression at a much higher rate.*
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