EMDR is a type of therapy that utilizes bilateral stimulation and dual-attention awareness to allow the brain to reprocess traumatic and formative experiences that are still having an effect on you today. It helps you develop awareness into the root causes of present negative beliefs, negative coping patterns, or uncomfortable body sensations. Then, it guides your brain in reprocessing (or making sense of in a different way) those moments in your life that have contributed to why you are in therapy in the first place. It also facilitates the release of emotions held in the body, sometimes for years. 

How does it really work?

Part of the reason why traumatic events (big T’s or little t’s) continue to impact you in the present day is that your brain hasn’t put the appropriate “time stamp” on it; meaning that it feels in your body to be happening right now (rather than, for example, 10 years ago). This is why our body sensations and emotions might seem really big and not proportional to the current situation. The bilateral stimulation and dual-attention awareness provide the space for you to recall the traumatic event within the presence and safety of the therapeutic alliance and to create the appropriate time gap between present day and the traumatic event (i.e., I’m thinking about the car crash I was in 10 years ago but I am sitting in the office with my therapist noticing my body sensations and watching the light bar and feeling the hand buzzers, therefore the car accident cannot possibly be happening right now). EMDR also helps to reprocess the way that you think of the event (and yourself, others, and the world) to create a shift towards a more adaptive perspective.

This is all a process that occurs within a safe space and within a trusting therapeutic relationship. You are an active participant in this healing process as you brain already knows how to heal and process on its own; sometimes it just needs a little added support.

Written by Laura D’Andrea
Registered Psychologist
Eclipse Psychology