EMDR

EMDR

Why EMDR?

Have you tried a multitude of treatments for your issues and not experienced much relief? Have you tried years of talk-therapy and/or medications yet feel like you keep "hitting a wall" around your healing, or getting better temporarily and then having a return of your symptoms or issues? Have you been afraid to even go to therapy because of not wanting to talk about your problems? Have you grown tired of talking over and over about your struggles with only temporary and transient periods of relief or change? Are you feeling like it will take years and years to heal, or that you will just be managing your symptoms for the rest of your life? If so, EMDR may be perfect for you. I often describe it as a seemingly "magical" process, despite it being well researched and backed by neuroscience. I, along with many other clinicians, have found it to work with most of the struggles we have in our lives. It does help incredibly with severe trauma-related symptoms and PTSD, but it also works with things like creative blocks, low self-esteem, relationship problems, increasing self-insight, or just wanting more motivation, direction and/or joy in life.

EMDR, especially when combined with other modalities of therapies, depending on what you are struggling with, just may be something to look into and try. It requires very little "homework," unlike most therapies, and it doesn't require much talking, or going into details about what you have been through. Some people want to talk more, and there's an important and healing element to this as well, but it is not necessary for EMDR to be effective. What must be present in order for EMDR therapy to help is the willingness to participate in the process, which for many seems very strange in the beginning- because it is! You must also feel some trust and safety with the clinician you choose. 

*Please read more below, and watch the short videos I included here and on the Trauma Recovery page. Below, I also included two wonderful sources of information you can click on to learn more. There are also excellent books I am including on my Resources page.

About EMDR:

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a treatment approach that has been widely validated by research with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Research on other applications of EMDR is now in progress. Clinicians, including myself, have also had success using EMDR in the treatment of the following conditions:

·       Panic Attacks

·       Complicated Grief

·       Dissociative Disorders

·       Disturbing Memories

·       Phobias

·       Chronic/Physical Pain

·       Performance Anxiety

·       Anxiety/Stress

·       Addictions/Compulsions

·       Sexual, Physical, Verbal and/or Emotional Abuse

·       Various Traumas/ Toxic Events (Small “t” and Big “T” Traumas)

·       Body Dysmorphic Disorder

·       Eating Disorders

·       Acute Stress Disorder

·       Secondary Traumatic Stress

·       OCD

·       Depression

·       Low Self-Esteem, Worthlessness, Intense Guilt/Shame

·       Complex PTSD, Attachment Trauma, Developmental Trauma

·       Relationship Issues

·       Emotional Dysregulation

·       Intense Anger/ Rage

·       Somatization (i.e. physical pain or discomfort)

"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.  Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.  EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma, much as the body recovers from physical trauma.  When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound.  If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.  The brain’s information processing system naturally moves towards mental health.  If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.

More than thirty positive controlled outcome studies have been conducted 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.  Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 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. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, one can easily grasp how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, along with all the myriad of problems that bring them in for therapy. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use this therapy.  Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 25 years.

EMDR therapy has eight phases. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session.  After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, she asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his/her eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision.  As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings.

In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level.  For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.”  Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes.  The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them.  Their wounds have not just closed; they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing the extensive amounts of homework used in other therapies.(EMDR Institute)"

*Definition of EMDR provided by the EMDR Institute, Inc. (click Here for more information)

*Learn more about EMDR through The EMDR International Association: EMDRIA

Attachment-Focused EMDR (AF-EMDR)

With Complex Trauma or Developmental Trauma, traditional EMDR has not been as effective, which is why Dr. Laurel Parnell created AF-EMDR (Click for a Podcast with Dr.Parnell). Complex Trauma includes prolonged exposure to trauma, multiple traumas and/or traumas going back to childhood or even in-utero. Often the traumas were perpetrated by the very people who the child is supposed to love, be protected by, trust, kept safe by, and feel safe with (i.e. caregivers, parents, family members, teachers). This creates more complex issues than single-incident traumas occurring in adulthood and results in insecure attachment. These can be "big T" and/or "little t" traumas. It can be something that happened to someone, and/or the absence of getting needs met by caregivers and even systems/ communities. This can include sexual abuse, neglect, abandonment, divorce, the death of a parent, physical abuse, being raised by an addict or someone who is mentally ill, as well as verbal, emotional or physical abuse.

Traditional EMDR helps greatly with this, however, there's a wall clients tend to hit, and often the safety and trust necessary for effective EMDR processing is not easily established. Also, it often takes longer to move into a place where it is safe to start processing work- where the processing will not lead to re-traumatizing. Individuals struggling with Complex PTSD or Developmental Trauma, often need much more time on the front end of therapy for building trust, safety and self-regulation tools, among other things. With AF-EMDR, created by Dr. Laurel Parnell, complex traumas can fully heal. And, the individual's attachment system can move towards what's known as "Earned Secure Attachment." I use this along with traditional EMDR in my practice and it's highly effective. *See below for more on AF-EMDR and Complex Trauma.

What is Attachment-Focused EMDR?

"Attachment-focused EMDR (AF-EMDR) is client-centered and emphasizes a reparative therapeutic relationship using a combination of (1) Resource Tapping™ (Parnell, 2008) to strengthen clients and repair developmental deficits, (2) EMDR to process traumas, and (3) talk therapy to help integrate the information from EMDR sessions and to provide the healing derived from therapist-client interactions.

"AF-EMDR extends the use and benefits of EMDR and bilateral stimulation for use with clients who have been typically less responsive to traditional EMDR protocols, due to acute or chronic relational trauma and attachment deficits. Those deficits include the effects of childhood physical or sexual abuse, neglect, early losses, birth trauma, medical trauma, parental drug or alcohol abuse, caregiver misattunement, secondary trauma, and the cumulative effects of all. These clients often present in therapy as depressed, with relationship difficulties or problems at work. They don’t feel fully alive. Childhood trauma has impacted their sense of safety and capacity to form close emotional relationships in adulthood.

Drawing from her extensive clinical experience, Dr. Parnell found that in order to work more successfully with this population, it is important to incorporate an attachment-repair orientation to all phases of EMDR work. She found that by making adjustments to the EMDR phases and procedural steps, clients experienced more complete resolution.

Dr. Parnell pursued her attachment-based method based on her belief that all good therapy is an art, not a technique. With emphasis on the importance of the therapist-client relationship, she states that, “…as we are able to drop into a place of silence and really listen to our own quiet voice and that of our clients, relational healing takes place.” 

Definition provided by the Parnell Institute, read more here.

Please look for her book "Tapping In," listed on the Resources page.