Bolt Counseling Services
GULFPORT, MS
228-382-3138
ABOUT EMDR
EMDR FOR TRAUMA AND ANXIETY
When the Past Still Feels Present
Have you ever known logically that something is over, but your mind or body still reacts as though it isn't?
Certain experiences can stay with us long after they're over. You may understand what happened, have talked about it, and even feel like you've moved forward—yet certain situations, memories, people, sounds, or feelings can suddenly bring the emotional response right back.
You might experience anxiety, anger, avoidance, intrusive memories, physical tension, feeling constantly on guard, or a reaction that seems much stronger than the situation in front of you.
Sometimes the problem isn't that you haven't thought enough about what happened. Your brain and nervous system may simply still be responding to an experience from the past as though it is relevant to the present.
That's where EMDR may help.
What Is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy approach designed to help the brain process distressing memories and experiences that continue to affect you.
Rather than simply discussing an experience over and over, EMDR works with the memories, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and body sensations connected to it.
During EMDR, bilateral stimulation—often through guided eye movements or other alternating stimulation—is used while briefly focusing on aspects of a distressing memory.
The goal isn't to erase the memory.
The goal is to help your brain recognize that what happened then isn't happening now.
You can still remember what happened without experiencing the same level of emotional or physical response to it.
“I Know It’s Over. Why Does It Still Bother Me?”
This is something we hear frequently.
You may logically understand that you're safe. You may know that a relationship has ended, a traumatic experience is over, or that something that happened years ago shouldn't have the same power over you today.
But knowing something intellectually and feeling it emotionally and physically can be very different things.
A present-day experience can activate an old emotional response before you've even had time to think about what's happening.
EMDR can help identify and reprocess the experiences connected to those responses so your past has less control over how you experience the present.
What Can EMDR Be Used For?
EMDR is perhaps best known for its use in treating trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but your therapist may determine that EMDR is appropriate for other distressing experiences or patterns as well.
These may include traumatic events, painful childhood experiences, abuse, accidents, loss, relationship experiences, anxiety connected to past events, disturbing memories, negative beliefs about yourself, or situations that continue to trigger a strong emotional or physical response.
Not every difficult experience has to look like a stereotypical traumatic event to have a lasting impact.
Sometimes people aren't trying to recover from one major event. Instead, they're carrying years of smaller experiences that shaped how they learned to see themselves, other people, or the world around them.
Do I Have to Talk About Everything That Happened?
One reason some people are interested in EMDR is that treatment doesn't necessarily require you to describe every detail of a painful experience.
Your therapist needs enough information to understand what you're experiencing and develop an appropriate treatment plan, but EMDR isn't based on repeatedly telling the entire story of what happened.
For people who know something continues to affect them but don't want therapy to consist entirely of talking about the past, this can be particularly helpful.
How Do I Know If I'm Ready for EMDR?
EMDR is more than simply starting eye movements and immediately processing your most difficult memory.
Before beginning reprocessing, we'll spend time understanding what you're experiencing, identifying potential targets for treatment, and determining whether EMDR is appropriate for you.
We'll also look at your ability to regulate emotions and manage distress when difficult material comes up.
The goal isn't to push you into the most painful experience as quickly as possible.
Some people are ready to begin processing relatively quickly. Others benefit from spending more time developing emotional regulation, grounding, coping skills, and a stronger sense of stability before beginning.
Your treatment should move at a pace that is appropriate for you.
What Does Successful EMDR Feel Like?
Successful EMDR doesn't mean forgetting what happened.
Instead, something that once felt emotionally charged may begin to feel more like something that happened in the past.
The memory is still there, but the intensity surrounding it can decrease.
A person might move from:
“I’m not safe.” to “That happened, but I'm safe now.”
Or:
“It was my fault.” to “I did the best I could with what I had.”
The facts of the experience haven't changed.
Your relationship with the experience has.
EMDR Therapy at Bolt Counseling Services
At Bolt Counseling Services, we use EMDR as part of an individualized approach to treating trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and other distressing experiences.
We'll help you understand what may be driving your current symptoms, determine whether EMDR is an appropriate treatment option, and prepare you for the process before beginning reprocessing.
The past will always be part of your story.
It doesn't have to keep feeling like it's happening in the present.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.
VALIDATED BY RESEARCH
More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, you can easily see how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and all the myriad problems that bring them in for therapy. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy. Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 25 years.
EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.
