EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and was founded by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the 1980s. Initially, it was used on veterans with PTST with great success. It has since been empirically supported by numerous randomized controlled trials and is internationally recognized as an effective treatment for trauma and a wide range of clinical disorders.

The working theory is that recalling stored trauma while moving the eyes back and forth helps the brain to process the stuck events, much like REM sleep helps the brain process your day. While paying attention to the history and being engaged in the current moment, the brain can “digest and process” the issue and integrate it into the “whole” of your experience.

If we imagine trauma like a physical wound that doesn’t heal, every time we bump into it or touch it (trigger it) it hurts and we may even lash out to push the thing that touched it away (a person, job, or situation). We can guard it and try to protect it from being touched, but inevitably, most of the time accidentally, it gets bumped and we react. It’s automatic and painful. It hurts us and those around us.

Because of the nature of trauma, our brains sometimes store it inappropriately. It didn’t get processed in a healthy way, and now it’s kind of isolated which creates a “block” of sorts. We can feel that it’s there and we “react” without fully understanding why. Maybe sometimes we even know what it is, but we just can’t get it to let go or release.

This is where EMDR is such a great tool. With it, we can access the poorly stored trauma memory and allow the brain to process and integrate it in a process that is unique to you! We all have a lens that we view the world through, and our brains are unique to us and our experiences. As the therapist, I help guide you through the steps, but it’s your brain that is unwinding and integrating the trauma according to how it best sees fit and what will be the most beneficial way to you personally.

EMDR is a holistic approach, incorporating the mind and the body to access and release the stuck trauma. Although it was developed with PTSD mitigation as a primary goal, it can be used with just about anything!

An interesting thing is that trauma is individualized to the person. What one person may not have an issue with, another will. Take siblings for example same environment but one had a “terrible” childhood and the other didn't see an issue with it! In part, that is due to the uniqueness of how each of us sees and processes the world around us.

Another issue can be that as kids, we don’t have access to the inner world of the adults around us. We hear their words and take them as facts. An adult could have had a bad day and was short in their response to us as a kid. Maybe they snapped and said something rude, and that became our new belief about ourselves. We then live our whole life from that limiting belief, it becomes our inner dialogue. Using EMDR we can access these limiting beliefs and change them to a more positive and empowering one, where we can finally move on from what’s been holding us back!

So if you’ve had a big trauma, little trauma, or even a very unsettling recent event, it can still negatively impact your life. EMDR therapy may just be what you need to move past your past and understand yourself better!