I first heard of EMDR Therapy a number of years ago, but it was only recently that I sought it out to experience it for myself. One of my sons had actually gone through a few sessions of the therapy to address emotional triggers for substance use and was amazed at how effective it was in such a short time. As I delved more deeply into the history and methodology of the process, it seemed like a perfect exemplar of the bodymind in action.
"EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences...
More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions...There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense" (emdr.com).
That's the thing, few of us have the time to spend years getting to the root of traumatic issues that trigger repeated dysfunctional responses in our lives. I actually was drawn to it because of intermittent "mishaps" (as we euphemistically call them) in my relationship with my partner over the past nine years. Things would go along just fine, then out of the blue we'd have a conflict that would set us back for sometimes weeks at a time. I knew that it had something to do with my issues of abandonment from my childhood, but felt powerless to diffuse the triggers.
The psychologist Francine Shapiro developed the EMDR technique in 1989. While walking through the woods one day, Shapiro happened to notice that her own negative emotions lessened as her eyes darted from side to side. The therapy originally entailed a light bar that encourages you to look back and forth with alternating rhythmic eye movements imitating REM sleep. More common now, as with my own experience with EMDR, is the use of hand-held buzzers (tactile bilateral stimulation) with gentle electrical impulses that focus your attention alternately on your right and left hand. The trained EMDR therapist can change the rhythm and intensity of the impulses as appropriate during the course of each session.
This bilateral stimulation re-programs the brain to balance the two hemispheres whenever a trigger for the trauma arises. As trauma lives in the body and is connected to emotional responses where the right hemisphere is dominant (fight/flight response or extreme anger), the rhythmic impulses remind the left hemisphere to weigh-in with a more thoughtful, reasoned response, which the therapist deliberately helps you to develop during the course of the therapy.
As with me, my partner's silent treatment after an argument, activated a childhood response to abandonment which would throw me into anger. Of course I knew the difference intellectually between then and now, but when it happens post-EMDR, I immediately remember the distinction and am able to stay calm rather than being driven by the emotional response. It's a knowing I feel in my body rather than having to rationalize my way into it. Whereas I'm not a big believer in quick fixes, this kind of therapy for me was extraordinarily successful in a short amount of time, just three one-hour sessions so far.
Like a lot of traditional psychotherapy, you spend some time building trust and talking about the painful memories to provide the therapist with details and language to use during the EMDR process. These recollections were both from childhood and the present day. For me, this process was only part of the first session. Then I was guided into an alpha state through breathing techniques and nature sounds.
Once I was fully relaxed and receptive, my therapist facilitated my visualizing a pleasant, positive, safe time in my life as counterpoint to the trauma. This, to be able to access in the event that the re-living of the trauma became too intense. My sanctuary was my grandmother's house in the Summer when I was a young girl. My traumatic memory was also from my childhood-- when my mother suddenly went away for 6 weeks to "rest" when I was six years old, my first recollection of abandonment. The balance of the first session was spent going back and forth between re-enacting the two "scenes" with all of their accompanying physical reactions.
I alternately cried and felt happy, while the electrodes I was holding kept a rhythmic series of impulses from right to left hand, slowing and getting stronger when my emotions became intense. Throughout, the therapist's reassuring voice expertly coached me through a maze of memories and feelings all the while my body was sending signals to my brain through the bilateral stimulation to balance the emotions with reason, sadness with understanding.
I walked out of the first session feeling purged, lighter. Like I had just experienced something extraordinary. I have a feeling that being connected to my body and having done aware breathing and meditation throughout my life primed me for the experience I just had. And I had a visceral sense of the profound connection between my body and mind. How clearly I felt my memories rather than thinking them, and how easily the intensity of emotion could be balanced by connecting the two hemispheres of the brain through tactile stimulation.
My next two sessions of EMDR were different, but no less extraordinary. My therapist adroitly guided the past into the present and I felt the connection between my childhood trauma of abandonment and my current relationship issues. I'm so intrigued by the effectiveness of the process that I am drawn to continue the therapy to address other issues in my life-- self-doubt, trust, etc. But I know that even if I never had another EMDR session, the impact will stay with me because I felt the shift in my body. Yet another way to Mind Your Body to become your best self.
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