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EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapeutic modality that is proven to be effective in treating trauma. Developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to reduce distress from memories of unresolved past traumatic experiences and create new healthy and constructive associations. EMDR uses a three-pronged approach that involves identifying and reprocessing the specific memories that are contributing to present-day symptoms, and then creating future templates that help us to integrate the new adaptive information we have learned. The modality contains 8 flexible phases, 1) History Taking and Treatment Planning, 2) Preparation: 3) Assessment, 4) Desensitization, 5) Installation, 6) Body Scan, 7) Closure and 8) Reevaluation.
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"Trauma is not what happens to you but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you." - Gabor Maté, MD
The AIP Model
EMDR is based on the adaptive information processing or AIP model, which is a framework for understanding how our past life experiences, positive or negative, influence our present day thoughts, feelings and behaviors. When something takes place that overwhelms our ability to cope (in other words, there’s too much happening, too quickly and too soon before it can be processed), information about how we experienced that event gets stored maladaptively. The disturbing life experience becomes linked with the emotions, thoughts and body feelings we experienced at the time, and is essentially frozen in time. EMDR helps us to access, reprocess and ultimately “unstick” these experiences so that we can put them fully in the past.
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The AIP model is grounded in the understanding that our brains and bodies are designed to and instinctively know how to heal. Once these blocks are removed, healing will happen naturally.
How Does Reprocessing Work?
During EMDR reprocessing, you will be invited to recall a disturbing memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation, either by following the therapist’s fingers with your eyes, tapping alternate sides of the body or using another method, such as the TheraTappers in the image. This process of dual awareness - revisiting a traumatic event while maintaining awareness of the present and engaging in bilateral stimulation - can help to shift the cognitive beliefs and physical and emotional responses associated with the memory so that you can move toward healing.
Because our brains tend to group our experiences into “clusters,” reprocessing can also allow us to identify and resolve similar issues. Since EMDR is a body-based form of therapy, it is not necessary to talk in detail about the traumatic experiences that are being processed.
EMDR and Parts Work
EMDR blends well with another therapeutic modality called parts work, which involves building healthy relationships with the “selves” that often hold our traumatic memories. Protective parts can be conceptualized as the strategies or defense mechanisms aimed at keeping us safe, and may have come about to help us cope with early life traumas or experiences we were ill-equipped to handle. Other wounded, and often younger, parts keep our painful experiences contained so we can carry on with everyday life without getting overwhelmed or retraumatized. EMDR works best when we have permission from all parts to move forward.
One of the most powerful and transformational aspects of trauma therapy lies in the process of building trust and safety with protective and wounded parts, and helping them to release the pain they have been holding. Both parts therapy and EMDR can bring about positive shifts in our physical and emotional responses to present day stressors, as well as our beliefs and narratives about what happened in the past and help us to build self-compassion and resiliency. ​