Is EMDR Treatment a Miracle Cure?
We get a lot of calls from people who have heard from a friend that a few sessions of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) helped them get over a trauma. They then go on to detail their long histories of repeated traumas and ask how long therapy will last and if EMDR Therapy is a miracle cure?
My authentic short answer to is EMDR is a miracle cure is yes, no and sometimes. I’ve had many clients with single incident trauma (car accident, sexual assault, etc.) who had a couple of sessions feel immeasurably better. They were no longer plagued by the unwanted memory and free to move on with their lives. However, in the 20 years that I’ve been using EMDR, I’ve also had a few clients that it wasn’t helpful to at all.
As a clinician and trauma therapist, I bought into EMDR quickly way back in 1996 when I took my first training. I was practicing it with another therapist and, in a single session, the story that had informed his whole life radically changed and took on an entirely different, positive meaning. I was a believer.
Of course, EMDR isn’t about belief. It has a deep history of clinical trials to back up its efficacy and has been rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs in the highest category of treatment, which recommends it for all trauma populations at all times.
How EMDR Treatment Works
What EMDR does is pretty amazing.
The EMDR process literally creates new neural pathways in our brain. This is also called neuroplasticity—the ability of our brains to change and heal. We’ve all had upsetting experiences that come up. And, when they play out like a video that we can’t stop, EMDR helps to stop that instant replay and switch the channel.
EMDR also changes how we store memories. In the daily flow of events, we have experiences that are stored in our short-term memory and, over time, move to our long-term memory. Insomuch, we remember what happened today better than last week and way better than last year.
However, traumatic memories get stored in our short-term memory and don’t move to our long-term. So when the trauma memory pops up, it comes with a piercing urgency and strong emotional and physical responses.
The goal with EMDR is to move those memories to long-term storage so when they come up the reality of what happened may be awful, but it now feels like it happened a long time ago. Essentially, we have integrated it into our psyche.
How EMDR Treatment Can Help
• EMDR changes the visual image of a trauma, often fuzzing it out so that the details are less clear. Or, the color washes out and it looks like an old photo and we are more removed from the scene. If there was the squeal of brakes or people yelling, those sounds are muted or silent.
• EMDR changes our emotional reactivity. We are no longer hit with a jolt of fear or overwhelming sadness, debilitating shame or rage.
• EMDR changes our physiological reactivity. Our stomach unclenches, that lump in our throat softens and dissolves, the weight on our heart lessens and our hunched shoulders drop.
• Lastly, EMDR changes our negative beliefs about ourselves in relationship to the trauma incident to positive ones. Our belief might go from “I should have done something” to “I did the best I could.” Or, from “I’m in danger” to “It’s over. I’m safe now.” Or, from “I am shameful” to “I am worthy.”
When the work is complete, the memory comes up less often, interests us less and has a different quality. Often, we can feel ourselves start to go down that habitual, well-worn path of reactivity, and then we just don’t.
The Benefits Of Using EMDR And Other Trauma Therapies
EMDR was developed as a therapy for single incident trauma, but at Cutting Edge Counseling we also use it for developmental trauma. EMDR usually won’t do the whole job. In order to fully heal from developmental or complex trauma, we need to add in body-based therapies, such as Somatic Therapy, Attachment Repair Therapy and Mindfulness Therapy with Self-Compassion.
We use EMDR to soften the single incident traumas embedded in the developmental trauma. It’s a bit like the game of Pick-Up Sticks. As the outlying sticks are more easily moved away, we carefully begin to remove sticks from the pile—the more easily moved sticks being the single incident traumas—the pile being the complex trauma. Many times aspects of the developmental trauma are so triggering that EMDR can help us divide and conquer the overwhelm.
EMDR is also a good way to map out trauma history. Its relaxed, stream-of-consciousness approach helps to easily connect what might be holding a trauma in place. As the AA slogan goes: “What’s hysterical is historical,” meaning that if we are having an oversized reaction to something fairly benign in the present, it’s probably being fueled by some unresolved trauma from the past.
We often use EMDR Treatment, Somatic Experiencing and Mindfulness therapies together, moving back and forth among them. We have blended somatic principles into our EMDR work, slowing things down, being invitational and allowing the nervous system time to regulate.
That’s some of the creativity and art of this healing work. We integrate knowledge, years of training and tailor our approach to each individual’s needs.
