Books and Methods Review - Methods - EMDR

EMDR –

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.  This is a great therapy for people with PTSD (some therapists even say it works for Oppositional Defiant Disorder, but this requires special training for the therapist).  My daughter and I have both used EMDR.  

What is PTSD?

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is usually talked about in association with soldiers, victims of rape or other violent crimes, or natural disasters But it is often seen in children and adults who have been exposed to trauma and/or abuse.

Examples of PTSD Symptoms -- Unwanted upsetting memories, Nightmares. Flashbacks, Emotional distress after exposure to traumatic reminders, Irritability or aggression, Risky or destructive behavior, Hypervigilance, Heightened startle reaction, Difficulty concentrating, Difficulty sleeping...

What is EMDR?

EMDR therapy can be very fast for a single event (like surviving a natural disaster, car accident, or rape), you can see results in as few as one or two sessions. Obviously, for Complex PTSD (usually caused by years of childhood abuse/trauma) it can take much longer. You don’t even have to talk about the event(s) during an EMDR session. The therapist talks/guides you through the process. 

EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.

Traumatic memories do not get processed by our minds in the same ways as other memories. Instead of getting fuzzier over time as most memories do, traumatic memories stay vivid. EMDR helps to move the traumatic memory into the typical processing thus allowing the memory to "soften" in its recollection.

With the therapist, the individual goes over the memory while focusing on an external stimulus that creates bilateral (side-to-side) eye movement. This can be achieved by watching the therapist moving a finger from left to right, alternately tapping on the client's hands (or other part of the body like the upper arms), or gives the client something that simulates a tap on alternate sides of the body.

{Marythemom - We used Theratappers which are paddles that alternately vibrate which you can hold in your hand or stick under your thighs.}

The therapist can aid you in talking about the traumatic event or you can just visualize the event in your head while you tap. . After each set of bilateral movements, the individual is asked how he feels. This process continues until the memory is no longer disturbing.

The individual is processing the trauma with both hemispheres of the brain stimulated. Each session normally lasts for about one hour. It is believed that EMDR works because the “bilateral stimulation” by-passes the area of the brain that has become stuck due to the trauma and is preventing the left side of the brain from self-soothing the right side of the brain.

During this procedure, clients tend to “process” the memory in a way that leads to a peaceful resolution. This often results in increased insight regarding both previously disturbing events and long-held negative thoughts about the self that have grown out of the original traumatic event. For example, an assault victim may come to realize that he was not to blame for what happened, he is now safe, that the event is really over, and, as a result, he can regain a general sense of safety in his world.

Following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer relives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to mind. You still remember what happened, but it is less upsetting. 

EMDR Therapy

You do HAVE to have a therapist who specializes in EMDR, trauma, and working with kids. 

Marythemom:  I have no idea why it works, but I would describe it as distracting your brain from physically re-experiencing the trauma so you can process the event without feeling like you are reliving it.  During a flashback, you usually experience rapid heart rate, fear, and adrenaline – just as though you’d gone back in time and were reliving the event – definitely something you would normally avoid! The therapist can aid you in talking about the traumatic event or you can just visualize the event in your head while you tap. 

Your body does not re-experience the trauma anymore, so you don’t have to fear triggers or the trauma itself.  This allows you to process the event, including accessing the irrational beliefs.  You don’t forget the event.  You just don’t relive it anymore.

Warning:  This doesn’t appear to work as well with younger kids.  It can also open some areas your child may not be ready to process yet.  We tried it one Summer and my daughter could not handle it emotionally.  I will admit though that this may have been my fault because I took the lead on the therapy (stupid on my part!), and wouldn’t let my daughter dissociate when things got too upsetting for her, but instead kept dragging her back to focus on what we were talking about.  With her many years of trauma, I guess I was impatient looking at how many years of therapy we had ahead of us.  Another reason to have a good experienced EMDR therapist, not a therapeutic mom!  When we tried EMDR again a couple of years later it went better.  I’ve also used it to help with my own PTSD and issues.

Finding an EMDR therapist
EMDR International Association
EMDR therapist network

Another person's experience with EMDR
http://www.facebook.com/DomesticViolenceKills/posts/205334052937453

Some more resources:  http://www.emdrnetwork.org/family.html

Books resources
EMDRresources.com
Attachment-Focused EMDR: Healing Relational Trauma - Integrating the latest in attachment theory and research into the use of EMDR.  Much has been written about trauma and neglect and the damage they do to the developing brain. But little has been written or researched about the potential to heal these attachment wounds and address the damage sustained from neglect or poor parenting in early childhood. This book presents a therapy that focuses on precisely these areas. Laurel Parnell, leader and innovator in the field of eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), offers us a way to embrace two often separate worlds of knowing: the science of early attachment relationships and the practice of healing within an EMDR framework. This beautifully written and clinically practical book combines attachment theory, one of the most dynamic theoretical areas in psychotherapy today, with EMDR to teach therapists a new way of healing clients with relational trauma and attachment deficits.

Children books
Butterfly Hugs
Getting Out the Icky's