By: Jaclyn Rink, MSCP, LLP

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy and has become empirically supported for the treatment of trauma and related disorders. It’s a treatment modality that utilizes bilateral body and eye movements to help the brain reprocess stressful past, present, and future circumstances into a move adaptive state. The main goal of EMDR is to make activating events less prominent in the nervous system. In other words, triggering events begin to feel less triggering, leading to a more integrated and controlled sense of self.

EMDR is not just about “talking through” your trauma; it is a full-system therapy, integrating emotions, somatic responses, memories, core beliefs, and current circumstances into one cohesive
moment to heal the brain. Traditional psychotherapy doesn’t always work for trauma, given the fact that safety must be felt and not explained logically to the body. Trauma lives in our body and our emotional brain, not just our thoughts, and to properly work through these experiences, we need to integrate both the body and the mind. To learn more about how EMDR works, please see our additional blogs!

Who can benefit from it?
Many types of presenting problems can be treated using EMDR:
• Trauma (including complex trauma)
• PTSD
• Phobias
• Personality Disorders
• OCD
• Depression
• Sleep problems
• Grief and loss
• Personality disorders
• Chronic pain
• Substance use disorders
• Mildly distressing memories

One of the most common misconceptions about EMDR is that you must have an extensive trauma history for it to be beneficial. Although EMDR is heavily researched to help treat traumatic
memories, it can also be used to help the body regulate mildly distressing memories or situations. Trauma can loosely be defined as any situation that overwhelms the nervous system. This could be something as tragic as a car accident that results in fatalities, or something as small as getting a flat tire and feeling stranded. EMDR can treat what I like to call “Big T’s” and “Little T’s” referring to any level of traumatic or stressful events.

EMDR focuses on the fact that experiences from your past show up in your present in an incongruent or unhelpful way, but it’s not only limited to distressing memories or flashbacks.
Trauma changes the way the brain functions, altering how people reason, feel, react, operate, and interact in their everyday lives. Trauma is not just a memory; it changes the way your brain
functions in order to keep you safe.

How Trauma Can Show Up in Everyday Life:
• Having emotional reactions that feel intense or sudden
• Displaying certain personality patterns/behaviors such as people pleasing, manipulation, introversion or hyper independence
• Memory weaknesses
• Irritability or defensiveness
• Lost sense of self or low self-confidence
• Issues with focus and/or cognitive fatigue
• Difficulty trusting others; avoiding relationships
• Exaggerated startle response or hypervigilance
• You notice your body reacts before your brain has time to think about (impulsivity)
• Unhealthy attachment patterns such as codependency or easy abandonment
• Somatic symptoms, including muscle tension and/or gastrointestinal issues
• Difficulty relaxing or “resetting”, always feeling “on edge”
• Ongoing feelings of intense shame or guilt
• Fears of conflict or abandonment
• Procrastination or indecision
• A need to be constantly busy
• Perfectionism or an intense need for control
• Sleep disruptions
• Emotional blunting, difficulty experiencing or expressing emotions.

These symptoms may suggest underlining difficulties with stuck or repressed traumatic memories that may be shaping functioning in everyday life. If you are interested in learning more about EMDR and if it may be right for you, call us at 734-416-9098 to schedule an appointment with a trained EMDR provider.

*Above symptoms listed are not solely related to/indicative of traumatic experiences and could be caused by other psychological conditions.
**Additionally, the above symptom list is not an exhaustive list of how trauma may show up in someone’s everyday life.