Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is quickly becoming one of the most well-known therapies for the effective treatment of trauma and other negative life experiences. Oftentimes, when information spreads and a therapy gains traction within the community it brings misinformation along with it. As a clinician who regularly uses EMDR in my practice, I am frequently asked questions pertaining to the length, process, and stages of EMDR and do my best to provide answers and challenge misconceptions as they arise. Below I do my best to bust some of the myths that I frequently come across.
Myth: Clinicians do not receive formal training for EMDR therapy.
Fact: To practice EMDR safely and ethically, EMDR therapists attend a 40 hour training through the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) and obtain supervision by an EMDRIA approved specialist for months after completing the training. This training reviews the 8 phase protocol, screening procedures, and supporting research for EMDR. Completion of this training allows the clinician to implement EMDR into their clinical practice. Before starting EMDR with a new clinician, be sure to ask them about their EMDR training to ensure they are qualified to be providing this service.
Myth: EMDR is a short term add-on therapy.
Fact: The standard EMDR protocol has 8 phases: History Taking, Client preparation, Assessment, Reprocessing, Installation, Body Scan, Closure, and Re-evaluation. Depending on client readiness and current coping measures in place, the client may not be prepared for the reprocessing of traumatic material. Clinicians may elect to spend a significant amount of time reviewing adaptive coping skills, providing talk therapy to work through current stressors, and taking a detailed history of the client’s significant life events prior to reprocessing to ensure that the client is prepared to revisit their trauma. This is done to prevent harm and further traumatizing of the client since EMDR can be an emotionally intensive form of therapy. The first few phases of EMDR may take months to ensure client readiness, thus making EMDR a longterm form of therapy for many.
In addition, some memories take longer to reprocess than others depending on the type of event (single event or ongoing), age at which the event occurred, and coping strategies used by the brain and body during the event. Typically, single event traumas, such as a car accident or injury, are reprocessed quickly because there was a clear beginning, middle, and end of the event whereas continual traumas take more sessions to fully reprocess.
Myth: All clients can do EMDR as part of their therapy.
Fact: Clinicians conduct careful screening of clients who express interest in doing EMDR therapy as part of their treatment plan. EMDRIA encourages clinicians to conduct a review of the client’s current stressors, level of dissociation (that floaty feeling that may happen when triggered), and medical issues as part of the Client Preparation stage. EMDR has been proven to be effective in helping people experiencing panic attacks, general anxiety, medical concerns, depression, eating disorders, grief, PTSD, sleep difficulty, and addiction. Clinical concerns that may delay or prohibit a client from receiving EMDR include diagnosis of a Dissociative Disorder, active suicidality/self-harm behaviors, lack of healthy coping skills, difficulty with maintenance of consistent therapy appointments, and foreseen upcoming life events (work demands, move, vacation, etc.).
Myth: The eye movements don’t add any benefit.
Fact: There has been a lot of controversy regarding the effects of the eye movements in EMDR, however, several research studies have indicated that they are a critical component to this therapy model. The eye movements have been proven to reduce emotional upset during exposure to the memory being reprocessed (Rimini et. al, 2016). In addition, when eye movements are applied, the brain releases a neurotransmitter that blocks old memories and helps with the creation of new memories which works to reduce physical and emotional discomfort.
The working theory is that the eye movements mimic the process of REM sleep which is the sleep stage in which we process recent happenings and consolidate the information so it can be stored for future retrieval. During REM sleep our eyes dart back and forth behind our eyelids which forces both the left and right brain hemispheres to “come online” and work together to process an event. This is important because the right hemisphere processes the sensory and emotional content of an event while the left hemisphere is responsible for making meaning of the experience and providing language so that is becomes one cohesive story rather than fragmented parts of a whole, which is what occurs when we live through a traumatic experience. During the EMDR re-processing phase, we are using the brain’s natural healing process to make sense of a disturbing event, consolidate the fragments, and store it away in our memory bank where it is less likely to be triggered time and time again. Without this component, we may be only using one hemisphere to process the experience which results in a longer and less effective healing journey.
If you have additional questions or want to learn more please reach out through my contact page. I am more than happy to talk EMDR with anybody who wants to learn more about this interesting and immensely healing form of therapy!
References
Rimini, D., Molinari, F., Liboni, W., Balbo, M., Daro, R., Viotti, E., & Fernandez, I. (2016). Effect of Ocular Movements during Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study. PLOS, 11(10). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164379