EMDR Therapy
Are you having trouble with anxiety?
Are you having a hard time getting over bad things that happened to you?
Ready to try a new approach for depression or PTSD.
If you have tried to get past a traumatic event or events, but you just can’t, it is likely that you are suffering from a very real problem called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. If so, EMDR Therapy, when included in an overall plan for your healing, may be very effective for you in overcoming these challenges with less discomfort and in less time than with traditional counseling.
Sometimes our emotional processing systems become overwhelmed by the real impact of trauma. When that happens, our natural problem-solving skills can get stuck, like a badly scratched vinyl record, and we end up experiencing the trauma over and over again, without healing it. We do that in many ways. Perhaps you have some of these symptoms:
Upsetting memories of the event
Bad dreams about the event or other things
Feeling like the event is happening all over again
Physical distress and discomfort
Avoiding thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, places, or people who remind you of the event.
Difficulty remembering the event or some aspect of it
Lowered interest in fun activities
Feeling disconnected
Being unable to have feelings you used to have – feeling numb
Feeling like you have no future
Sleep problems
Increased irritability or anger
Depression
Anxiety
These can all be normal reactions when something bad or traumatic happens to you. When your healing system is working the way you want, you can generally overcome trauma yourself, with support from friends and family. However, when your own processes are overloaded or overwhelmed, that’s when seeking professional help to overcome trauma is a very wise choice!
When trauma gets stuck, it can affect just about any area of your life and it can be very difficult to overcome on your own. The effects of these hurts can last for a long time and can impact:
Self care
Work
Relationships
Social
Physical well-being/health
Emotional
Substance use
Interest in hobbies or other fun
At Counseling Services of Portland, our contracted therapists are trained in many effective trauma resolution methods, and research shows that EMDR is one of the very most effective.
What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative psychotherapy approach, which means that it is always used as a method in an overall plan to help you make the changes you want. EMDR’s effectiveness has been extensively researched and has been used for around 30 years to help people with trauma make changes more rapidly and thoroughly. EMDR has been clearly shown to be effective in the treatment of trauma and PTSD.
EMDR consists of a set of standardized protocols (or steps) that uses guided eye movement, tapping, or sound to help unlock your own healing resources. Many different approaches are incorporated in EMDR as part of an overall plan to help you make positive changes.
Are you old enough to remember vinyl records? Do you remember when one would get scratched and the needle would skip, playing the same bit of music over and over again? And how you would have to very gently nudge the needle to get the record playing again? EMDR therapy is like that. EMDR helps nudge the places where you’re stuck to start moving again so that your own natural healing process can take place, usually much more quickly than with standard therapy. Indeed, one of the most wonderful things about EMDR therapy is that it feels very natural!
There are 8 phases of EMDR Treatment:
History and Treatment Planning
Preparation
Assessment
Desensitization
Installation
Body scan
Closure
Reevaluation
All of this will happen within the context of a of a well established, trusting relationship with your EMDR therapist.
Before starting EMDR treatment, you will learn and practice coping skills and tools so that you will be safe, grounded, and more emotionally resilient as the EMDR treatment starts.
Together, you and your therapist will work up an EMDR plan that will help you identify negative beliefs and disturbing thoughts, emotions, memories, or physical sensations or beliefs that come out of your past traumas and hurts. Your therapist then uses eye movement, sometimes tapping or sound, in a very specific, controlled way to help you move past these limitations, enabling you to break free and live the life you were meant to live, rather than just coping with the past.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can help you overcome:
Posttraumatic stress
Panic attacks
Disturbing memories
Nightmares
Performance anxiety
Stress
Complicated grief
Sexual trauma/abuse
Physical trauma/abuse
Negative feelings and beliefs
Heightened startle response
Most people respond to very positively EMDR therapy, and find that they are now free from what was bothering them and holding them back. Most of the time, folks just forget to think about the problem anymore. And that is fantastic!
Instead of being held back by your difficulties, EMDR can help you process through, “digest” what is bothering you, and put it in the past, usually much more quickly than traditional modes of therapy.
EMDR helps you put things in your PAST, where they belong, so that you can live more fully in your present and make plans for your future.
What is Trauma?
The word “trauma” is Greek, and it means “wound”. Trauma happens when a person experiences situations that are physically, emotionally, sexually, psychologically, and/or spiritually damaging. These experiences can leave you with a reduced ability to cope with life, along with feelings of powerlessness and helplessness, anger, rage, fear, sadness, depression, anxiety and humiliation.
You might even blame yourself for the trauma when it was not your fault.
Most of the time, we overcome trauma on our own, without help.
But sometimes, trauma can be severe enough, or mild but repetitious enough (as is the case with ongoing childhood neglect) that our natural capacity to process through the trauma becomes overloaded, and we become stuck with memories, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations that disrupt our ability to cope.
When our own, natural coping and healing mechanisms become overwhelmed, it is time to seek help to overcome the trauma and get back on the right track.
Sometimes it can be hard to identify exactly why you feel the way you do, and it can be helpful to talk to an EMDR therapist to help you identify experiences that you may not define as trauma, but that really are, and that hold you back in ways that you don’t want:
Emotional abuse/neglect – If you grew up in a situation in which this was normal, it can be hard to identify it as trauma
Being bullied or ridiculed – some people think this is a normal part of life, but it isn’t and can affect you in ways that you don’t want. It can change the way you see yourself for the worse, and that can haunt you into adulthood
A bad job situation – Many people have jobs that are traumatic for them. A mean boss or a gossipy coworker can leave you feeling mal, discouraged, unvalued and makes you just not want to go to work
Experiences of shame, being left out – feeling abandoned or rejected can leave deep wounds, especially for kids and teens
Feeling unwanted, uncared-for – feeling alone and unwanted as a child can leave deep emotional wounds that follow us into adulthood
Accidents – car, sports or other, can bring on flashbacks, anxiety and avoidance
Illness – chronic illness, cancer treatment, etc., can leave a person feeling worthless, useless, and can change one’s very identity
Divorce – divorce can be very traumatic. Your whole life changes, you have to deal with custody issues, your finances can become strained, you can feel deeply rejected
Loss of close friendship – can leave you feeling disoriented and unsupported, and like you don’t know who you are
Death or illness of a love-one, including pets – It can be absolutely devastating and life-stopping to lose a loved one to death or illness, and sometimes our grief process gets stuck
Childhood medical or developmental issues – kids who have had medical trauma can carry that pain with them all their lives. Kids with developmental issues can experience frustration, bullying and other difficulties
Fortunately, EMDR can help you overcome all of these traumas.
About 20% of people are what’s known as Highly Sensitive People (HSPs). Being an HSP is perfectly normal and is an asset in many ways. HSPs tend to be more aware of their environment and more deeply impacted by experiences. High Sensitivity is a gift, not a flaw, and can make people more deeply impacted by the effects of trauma.
Often HSP’s are told (and tell themselves) “It wasn’t that bad, get over it, why are you being so sensitive?” etc. It is important that HSPs do their emotional self-care, and overcoming events that others might not think are that big a deal is one way of doing so. EMDR can be enormously helpful for HSPs to help them metabolize trauma and move on with their lives.
If you are an HSP, it is a good idea to work with a therapist who understands you and has experience working with Highly Sensitive People.
How do I know if EMDR Therapy is right for me?
The first thing is to talk with an experienced therapist who practices EMDR. Your therapist can evaluate whether EMDR is the right treatment for you. Our EMDR therapists have extensive training and experience in helping you make this decision.
You may already know that you have PTSD, and you may only have a few of the following challenges. Either way, EMDR can help you. If you experience:
Hypervigilance – feeling on alert to everything (and everyone) in your surroundings
Upsetting emotions – emotions that feel like they are not in your control
Feeling “stuck” or “frozen” like a deer in headlights
Angry feelings that seem like they are not “you”
Wanting to run away and hide
Feeling disconnected or numb
Anxiety / panic attacks
Unexplained medical complications
Physical “tightness” in the muscles (clenched jaw, tight shoulders, tight chest, difficulty taking a deep breath)
Confusion, difficulty concentrating
Feeling like the other shoe is always going to drop, like danger is just around the corner
Loss of interest in other people
Obsessive thoughts– you can’t quit thinking about bad things
Intrusive and disturbing thoughts/memories/flashbacks
Feeling disconnected from yourself, others, reality
EMDR can help you identify the source of these difficulties help you and resolve them. And with resolution comes:
increased well-being
more freedom to make good choices for yourself
more energy
improved self-esteem
better self-care
more satisfying relationships
the ability to live in the present rather than the past.
But I’m afraid of having to relive awful experiences!
Don’t worry! It isn’t necessary for you to vividly recall or relive bad or buried memories!
If you are coping with bad memories by blocking them out, this is absolutely normal. It’s what we do to get on with life after something awful has happened. But, eventually, these memories, and the emotional and other effects of these experiences, tend to surface in ways that disrupt our lives.
With EMDR, you should be able to process the hurt of experiences and put them in your past without having to deeply relive them.
Our contracted therapists do this by engaging in EMDR therapy while briefly recalling a distressing event. The activity of eye movement, or tapping, helps to move the memories forward and “digest” them without having to relive the experience as though it were happening all over again. They do this until you have little or no more reactivity to the event. It is your EMDR therapist’s job to guide you in such a way that you are grounded and steady during the EMDR processes. It doesn’t mean you won’t feel emotions. It means that you will not become overwhelmed or swallowed by the memories or the emotions you process through. At the end of EMDR Therapy, the goal is to no longer be bothered by your memories. It should feel like, “Yes, that was a really bad thing that happened, but it is no longer hindering me or my life. It’s in the past and I have moved on.”
Your EMDR therapist will be your guide and your guard, keeping you safe and grounded, and collaborating with you in your healing process at a rate that is comfortable and safe for you. In an effective therapeutic relationship, you and your EMDR therapist will make sure your treatment is going in the right direction for you, at a pace and intensity that works for you and doesn’t unduly disrupt your life.
What if I just feel the effects of trauma without a specific memory?
It isn’t necessary for you to remember the trauma for EMDR to work for you. There are many ways that we can approach EMDR therapy, sometimes by focusing on emotions, body sensations, dreams, or beliefs. So don’t worry if you can’t recall anything specific! Together we can decide ways to focus the work that work for you.
How Long Does EMDR Therapy Last?
EMDR therapy is most effective when used within the context of a solid therapeutic relationship. Building that relationship with our clients is crucial, and that can take a bit of time. We do not want to jump into EMDR until we have a very clear idea of who you are as a person, what your needs are, what your strengths and challenges are, etc. In treating you using EMDR therapy, the length of treatment depends on the depth, duration, and age you were at the time of the trauma, and on your particular life situation, level of sensitivity, beliefs, support system, and other factors.
EMDR has been shown to significantly decrease the length of trauma treatment. After your EMDR therapist has evaluated your situation, she can give you a better idea of how long your process might take.
Can EMDR Therapy be effective for Children and Adolescents?
Yes! We have found, and there is ample research to confirm, that EMDR Therapy is effective for kids and teens. Some modifications may needed to fit the developmental level and particular needs of your child. Your EMDR therapist will be able to talk with you about whether EMDR is right for your child, and what modifications are best for your kid’s well-being and comfort. Be sure your child is working with an EMDR therapist who is also knowledgeable and experienced in working with children and adolescents.
For more in-depth information on EMDR, please visit:
