Trauma and EMDR Therapy: How EMDR Can Help You Heal
Trauma can affect much more than our memories. It can influence how we feel, how we respond to stress, how safe we feel in relationships, and even how our bodies react long after a difficult experience has passed.
For some people, talking about what happened is helpful. For others, they understand what happened intellectually but still find that their nervous system reacts as though the experience is happening now.
EMDR therapy can be one approach to helping people process traumatic experiences and reduce the impact they continue to have on everyday life.
What Is Trauma?
When people hear the word trauma, they may think of a major event such as an accident, assault, abuse, or sudden loss. However, trauma can also develop from experiences that occur repeatedly or over a long period of time.
These may include:
Childhood abuse or neglect
Difficult or unsafe relationships
Bullying
Family conflict
Loss or grief
Medical experiences
Motor vehicle accidents
Violence or assault
Witnessing frightening events
Repeated experiences of rejection, criticism, or instability
People respond to difficult experiences differently. An event that has a lasting impact on one person may affect another person differently.
What Can Trauma Feel Like?
Sometimes the connection between a past experience and what someone is experiencing today is obvious. Other times, it isn't.
Trauma-related difficulties can include anxiety, feeling constantly on guard, intrusive memories, nightmares, avoiding certain situations, irritability, emotional numbness, difficulty trusting others, strong reactions to reminders of the past, or feeling overwhelmed by emotions.
Some people describe knowing logically that they are safe while their body seems to be telling them otherwise.
This is one of the reasons trauma therapy isn't necessarily about simply telling yourself to "move on."
What Is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
It is a structured form of psychotherapy that was originally developed to treat trauma and distress associated with difficult memories.
During EMDR, a therapist helps the client identify experiences, memories, beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations connected to the problem they are experiencing.
EMDR also incorporates bilateral stimulation, which may involve guided eye movements or other forms of alternating left-right stimulation.
The goal isn't to erase a memory.
Instead, EMDR aims to help the brain process the experience so the memory becomes less distressing and has less influence over how you feel and respond in the present.
Do You Have to Tell Your Therapist Everything?
One aspect of EMDR that some clients appreciate is that it does not necessarily require describing every detail of a traumatic experience at length.
Your therapist needs enough information to understand what you are experiencing and provide safe, appropriate treatment, but EMDR can often focus on the thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories connected with an experience without requiring an extensive verbal retelling.
For people who find repeatedly talking about traumatic experiences overwhelming, this can make EMDR worth exploring.
How Can EMDR Help With Trauma?
After trauma, reminders of an experience can sometimes trigger intense emotional or physical responses.
Someone might encounter a situation that is objectively safe but suddenly experience fear, panic, shame, anger, or a strong urge to escape.
EMDR therapy works toward helping the person process the underlying memory so that reminders of the experience are less emotionally activating.
The person doesn't forget what happened. Ideally, they can remember it without experiencing the same level of distress or feeling as though they are back in the experience.
What Happens During EMDR Therapy?
EMDR is more than simply following a therapist's fingers with your eyes.
Treatment generally includes several stages. Your therapist will spend time getting to know you, understanding what is bringing you to counselling, discussing your history, identifying treatment goals, and determining whether EMDR is appropriate for you.
Preparation is an important part of the process.
Before processing traumatic memories, the therapist may help you develop strategies for managing distress and staying grounded.
When you and your therapist are ready to begin processing, you may be asked to briefly focus on aspects of a particular memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation. Your therapist guides the process and periodically checks in about what you are noticing.
Treatment is individualized, and you remain an active participant throughout the process.
Is EMDR Only for PTSD?
EMDR is probably best known as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but therapists may incorporate EMDR when working with other concerns connected to distressing experiences.
Depending on the person and the therapist's assessment, this may include trauma-related anxiety, fears, negative beliefs about oneself, distress following an accident, or difficult past experiences that continue to affect present-day functioning.
EMDR isn't automatically the right treatment for every person or every concern. A trained therapist can help determine whether it makes sense for your particular situation.
How Long Does EMDR Take?
There isn't one answer.
Some people are seeking help with a single distressing experience. Others have experienced repeated or complex trauma over many years.
The amount of preparation and processing required can therefore vary considerably.
Rather than promising that trauma can be resolved in a specific number of sessions, your therapist can work with you to develop a treatment plan based on your history, goals, current circumstances, and response to therapy.
EMDR Therapy in Kelowna, BC
If experiences from your past continue to affect your life today, you don't necessarily have to figure out how to work through them on your own.
At Lakeside Clinical Counselling, we provide trauma-informed counselling in Kelowna, BC, including therapists who incorporate EMDR into their work.
Our goal is to help match you with a counsellor whose experience, approach, personality, and availability fit what you're looking for.
Whether you have experienced a single traumatic event or difficult experiences that have accumulated over time, counselling can provide a supportive place to understand what you're experiencing and explore ways of moving forward.
Looking for EMDR or Trauma Counselling in Kelowna?
Complete our Best Fit Form, and our team can help match you with a therapist based on what you're looking for.