Trauma is a bitch.
You can heal.
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) is a therapy modality modeled after what indigenous wisdom and practices have known for centuries - healing includes both the mind and the body. EMDR helps us move past traumatic memories that feel stuck, so that they no longer cause us pain and distress. Healing through EMDR allows us to respond to our surroundings with the appropriate level of guardedness, as our brains realize how much of our danger is in the past and/or how much strength we currently have. We build post-traumatic growth, and recover a sense of safety and strength.
It’s like turning an open wound into a scar: you will always remember what happened to you, but it doesn’t hurt in the same way.
How does EMDR work?
Step 1: Preparation
Initial stages of EMDR are about identifying the feelings, memories, and body sensations you would like to reprocess – the “triggers” you would like to find healing from. We will also identify the strengths and supports you have around you and within you to rely on throughout this process.
Step 2: Reprocessing
These 90-minute intensive sessions rely on bilateral stimulation (think a drum beat that shifts from your left to right ear, or alternately tapping your left and right knee) to “keep our brains online” when revisiting a distressing memory. It reminds our body that we are in the present while we revisit a past trauma, keeping us from getting too overwhelmed by fear and pain. After repeated sets of bilateral stimulation, the traumatic memory gets moved to the appropriate place in our brains – it moves from the place of constant alert (our amygdala), to the place where long term memory is stored (our neocortex) and we have full access to our strength, wisdom and skills when facing danger or challenge. Ultimately, we will know this step is complete when you can recall the memory with little or no distressing emotions.
Step 3: Integration
The final sessions of EMDR therapy create space for you to reflect on the process and identify what has changed in your daily life and relationships. Often people find that they are not as reactive to old triggers, feel safer around others, and feel an increased sense of control over their life and emotions. It is also common to identify other memories that could be helped by additional reprocessing sessions. Many of us have lived through more than one traumatic experience, and it will be your choice to decide if this is a healing method that works well for you.
What is Trauma?
Trauma can be defined as a distressing experience that overwhelmed a person’s ability to respond. At its core, trauma has to do with helplessness: in the face of danger, we were cut off from choice and/or connection to supportive others, and in that way severed from the power to keep ourselves or others safe.
Relational abuse, natural disasters, car accidents, and exposure to violence can all cause trauma. It can be a single experience, or multiple repeated experiences. Trauma can be interpersonal (abuse), systemic (racism), or historical (genocide). It undermines our sense of safety in the world, our sense of self, our trust in people and ability to navigate relationships.
After traumatic experience(s), people may feel stuck in emotions of shame, fear, powerlessness, anxiety, hopelessness. They may experience flashbacks, numbness, feeling “on guard”, irritable, have trouble sleeping and concentrating. When these symptoms make it difficult to move through daily life for longer than six months, it is possible they are battling Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Continuous Traumatic Stress (CTS).
Trauma is overwhelming.
And often, just talking about it doesn’t help. Traumatic memory is stored in our body. We have to find healing practices that engage both our mind and body.