EMDR Therapy

“A negative memory will always be a negative memory. However, we can reduce the distress and disturbance that you experience in your body when you bring up that memory. The memory becomes resolved. We change the way that it is stored in your mind so it doesn’t bother you anymore.”

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR Therapy can help reduce PTSD symptoms such as:

flashbacks
hyper-vigilance
nightmares
unwanted thoughts and images
anxiety
depression
irritability or outbursts of anger
difficulty concentrating

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is an evidence-based psychological treatment used effectively by psychologists and psychiatrists internationally for more than 25 years.

Through the EMDR Therapy lens, psychopathology (symptoms) is a disorder of memory. Resolve the memory - resolve the psychopathology!

EMDR Therapy helps people re-process and resolve disturbing and distressing past traumatic memories so they are no longer negatively impacted by those events.

EMDR Therapy can help reduce present-moment triggers and symptoms, desensitise addiction-related urges and cravings and can lay down positive future templates for adaptive behaviours. Additionally, EMDR Therapy and the Theory of Structural Dissociation of the Personality (TSDP) can support the integration of different ‘emotional parts’ which occurs when the person ‘splits’ or ‘divides’ into parts in the face of disrupted attachment and traumatic events experienced, especially in early childhood.

Why consider EMDR Therapy?

Sometimes negative events from our past stay with us and affect us in a disturbing way. One moment can become ‘frozen in time’ and remembering a traumatic memory may feel as bad as going through it for the first time. This is because the images, sounds, smells and feelings still seem to be there in vivid form. Such memories can interfere with the way we see the world and relate to others.

For some people, regardless of the excellent coping skills they put into place, sudden flashbacks or dissociative episodes can continue. EMDR Therapy appears to allow the brain to process this ‘stuck’ information (including negative beliefs, emotions, smells, sounds, thoughts, sensations and images) that continues to cause disturbance.

Following EMDR Therapy sessions where you re-process a negative, past traumatic memory to full resolution, you no longer relive the trauma of that memory. You can still remember the memory, but it no longer feels upsetting or disturbing.

What EMDR Therapy can treat

Scientific and evidence based research has established EMDR Therapy as effective for:

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Complex Trauma
Childhood Trauma
Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)

Clinicians have also successfully used EMDR as a treatment component in the management of:

C-PTSD (Complex PTSD)
Depression (where a component of the client’s issues are disturbing memories from the past)
Anxiety with or without Panic attacks
Attachment Disorders
Personality disorders (such as Borderline Personality Disorder where previous traumatic incidents and poor attachment are identified as contributing factors)
Complicated grief and loss issues
Dissociative disorders (where previous traumatic incidents and poor attachment are identified as contributing factors)
Pain disorders (where there may be one or more specific memories involved with the development of pain or with a specific accident that has led to the pain disorder)
Eating disorders and body image issues
Sexual, physical, emotional and/or verbal abuse
Phobias

What you can learn during EMDR Therapy

Before you are ready to re-process disturbing memories that may have contributed to one of the above disorders or other trauma-related symptoms, it is necessary that you are able to develop some helpful ways of coping with distress so that you can tolerate bringing up these negative memories that are affecting you (this is known as Phase 2 - Preparation and Stabilisation Phase).

In order to prepare clients for EMDR Therapy work, the following therapies and strategies are commonly used:

Psychoeducation on EMDR Therapy, Trauma, Attachment, Depression, Anxiety, Emotional Self-Regulation
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) Informed Therapy
Stress management
Mindfulness and meditation practices
Guided relaxation and breathing techniques
Problem-solving and decision-making skills
Assertive communication skills and healthy boundary setting
Healthy routines and self-care strategies, for example, exercise, nutrition, hobbies, balance
Sleep hygiene practices
Anxiety management strategies
Motivational interviewing techniques to work on the reduction or cessation of any current addictions or other maladaptive coping strategies

How does EMDR Therapy work?

Content from disturbing memories is held in a raw or unprocessed state in the limbic system. It is believed that during memory reprocessing, and with the assistance of eye movements (mimicking REM sleep which has shown evidence for spontaneous processing of memories) the information from the memory is transferred to the pre-frontal cortex where the client can make better sense of what has happened including the fact that the event is over.

This is important because when a person experiences a flashback, they feel as if the event is happening in the present. Through EMDR Therapy, it becomes spontaneously evident that the event is in the past and that the client is safe now in the present.

Following the preparation and stabilisation phase, the desensitisation and reprocessing phases begins, and the client is asked to focus on trauma-related imagery, negative core beliefs, emotions and body sensations while simultaneously engaging in bilateral stimulation (e.g. moving their eyes back and forth following the movement of the therapist’s fingers, tapping their knees or tapping their shoulders using the Butterfly Hug Technique for 20–30 seconds or more). This process may be repeated many times.

It is proposed that this dual attention facilitates the processing of the traumatic memory into existing knowledge networks, although the precise mechanism involved is not known.

It is important to note that EMDR Therapy utilises Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) components in its treatment protocol. These include cognitive interweaving, imaginal templating (rehearsal of mastery or coping responses to anticipated stressors) and standard in vivo exposure when appropriate. In general, the protocol is comparable in length of treatment time to standard trauma‑focussed CBT.

What is special about traumatic memories?

Normal memories are stored by a part of the brain called the frontal cortex. You can think of the hippocampus as a sort of librarian which catalogues (processes) events and stores them in the right place.

However, some traumatic events (such as accidents, deaths, medical trauma, physical and emotional abuse, early attachment difficulties, disasters, relationship breakups or violence) are so overwhelming that the hippocampus doesn’t do its job properly. When this happens, memories are stored in their raw, unprocessed, live form.

These trauma memories are easily triggered, leading them to replay and cause distress over and again.

Evidence supporting EMDR Therapy

EMDR Therapy is one of the most researched psychotherapeutic approaches for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and is endorsed by the following organisations:

The Australian Psychological Society (APS, 2010) has recently listed EMDR as a Level 1 treatment for PTSD.
The World Health Organization (WHO, 2013) Trauma focused CBT and EMDR are the only psychotherapies recommended for children, adolescents and adults with PTSD.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2004) Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Acute Stress Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs (2004, 2010) listed EMDR Therapy as an empirically supported treatment of choice in many countries, including Australia. It was placed in the “A” category for the treatment of trauma.
It is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for PTSD.