A Transient Primer (From A Therapist)

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Final Up to date on October 20, 2023 by Randy Withers, LCMHC

Each few years, it looks as if a brand new “revolutionary” remedy turns into in style. Its inventor will cite research verifying its validity, claiming that that is the silver bullet that may finish human struggling.

Nearly inevitably, these therapies shortly lose their following and are positioned on the bookshelf to gather mud.

Nevertheless, there have been a couple of therapies which have stood the check of time. One among these is a sort of remedy referred to as EMDR.

EMDR stands for eye motion desensitization and reprocessing. It’s an eight-stage remedy used to deal with PTSD, anxiousness, phobias, and a number of different issues.

It’s rising quickly, with over 100,000 therapists educated in EMDR worldwide.

Nevertheless, regardless of its reputation, no person is certain how EMDR works, leaving it open to criticism. 

This text explores a number of the hottest theories about how EMDR works. To learn from this put up, it’s essential that you’ve some background details about EMDR. If it’s good to, try this article to be taught extra about EMDR, then come again and browse this one.

Is EMDR Efficient? 

Earlier than we discuss how EMDR works, we have to reply the query of if it’s efficient. Though there are EMDR skeptics, analysis strongly means that it’s an effective way to deal with PTSD.

For instance, a meta-analysis from 2014 discovered that EMDR can considerably cut back PTSD signs, together with melancholy and anxiousness. In her ebook “Getting Previous Your Previous,” Dr. Francine Shapiro, the inventor of EMDR, said that “greater than 20 scientifically managed research of EMDR have confirmed its effectiveness within the remedy of traumatic and different disturbing life experiences.” 

Moreover, the World Well being Group and the American Psychological Affiliation each suggest EMDR as an efficient remedy for PTSD.

Among the most fascinating analysis on EMDR exhibits that it might have an effect on how completely different components of the mind talk with one another. In 2019, researchers used an fMRI machine to look at the affect EMDR had on a gaggle of trauma survivors. They discovered that completely different mind areas have been extra linked following EMDR remedy, and that different mind areas have been much less linked. These adjustments in connectivity probably confirmed that their brains have been therapeutic from trauma. EMDR can create such drastic adjustments on mind functioning that some researchers describe it as “a medical process.”

The AIP Mannequin 

We are able to confidently say that EMDR helps deal with PTSD. Now the query is – why?

In an effort to clarify the advantages of EMDR, Dr. Shapiro created the “Adaptive Data Processing” (AIP) mannequin.

With the AIP mannequin, Dr. Shapiro advised that the human mind is designed to course of and retailer the data it gathers all through the day. 

Traumatic occasions can generally overwhelm the mind’s means to course of data. When these reminiscences stay unprocessed, they’ll create signs of PTSD and different psychological well being issues.

Let me use an instance to assist clarify. If I requested you to recollect what you had for breakfast yesterday, how would you’re feeling? Likelihood is you’d really feel high-quality – breakfast is normally an unremarkable a part of the day. As such, your mind processes consuming breakfast and shops it in your long-term reminiscence.

Now, what if I requested you to recollect essentially the most traumatic occasion you’ve ever skilled? Until you’ve handled this trauma, you’ll probably expertise some misery. It’s because there are parts of the reminiscence your mind hasn’t been capable of course of and retailer.

Over time, these reminiscences can create anxiousness, melancholy, and PTSD signs, making it essential to course of them. Utilizing the AIP mannequin, Dr. Shapiro advised that EMDR by some means prompts the mind’s pure means to retailer reminiscences away.

So, the AIP mannequin does an awesome job of explaining the outcomes we see from EMDR, nevertheless it doesn’t clarify the precise mechanism by which EMDR helps the mind heal.

How EMDR Works

Fortunately, it is a subject of curiosity amongst many researchers. As such, there are a number of believable theories about how EMDR works. Listed here are three of the most well-liked.

1. EMDR Mimics Gradual Wave Sleep 

One of the crucial frequent theories about how EMDR works is that it mimics gradual wave sleep (SWS). Analysis means that SWS performs a key position in processing emotional reminiscences, shifting them from the “feeling” a part of the mind to the “considering” a part of the mind.

Quite a few researchers recommend that the attention actions present in EMDR create mind waves which can be like these present in SWS. As a result of SWS naturally helps the mind clear distressing reminiscences, recreating SWS mind exercise is assumed to facilitate this pure therapeutic course of.

Notably, SWS happens as much as 5 instances per evening; in a typical EMDR session, eye actions are carried out far more regularly. This might assist clarify why EMDR processes reminiscences so shortly.

Take a look at this image that compares EMDR to SWS. The highest line exhibits a participant’s mind waves throughout eye actions, whereas the underside line exhibits mind waves throughout SWS. It’s not possible to disclaim how comparable they appear, lending extra proof that the SWS principle is likely to be appropriate.

2. EMDR Taxes Working Reminiscence 

Everytime you accomplish a process, you will need to use data you’ve realized all through your life to finish it.

For instance, if I requested you to tie your shoe, you would wish to make the most of your data about the right way to knot your laces collectively to maintain them from coming undone. 

The data you employ to perform duties is named “working reminiscence,” and a few researchers recommend that it performs an important position in EMDR.

Throughout an EMDR session, the affected person is requested to recall their traumatic reminiscence with its accompanying psychological photographs, ideas, feelings, and physique sensations. As they accomplish that, the therapist begins to supply bilateral stimulation (BLS).

This principle of why EMDR works means that recalling the traumatic reminiscence whereas noticing the BLS taxes the mind’s working reminiscence. Basically, our brains can solely attend to a lot data without delay. Whereas noticing the BLS, the affected person can’t totally attend to the traumatic reminiscence, resulting in a discount in misery.

This quote from researchers in Switzerland summarizes this principle properly:

“Our outcomes…recommend that recalling a traumatic reminiscence whereas performing a second process would shift the person’s consideration away from the retrieval course of and end in a discount in vividness and emotionality, additionally related to the discount of signs.”

3. Reminiscence Reconsolidation through EMDR 

A standard false impression about reminiscences is that, as soon as they’re saved, they’ll by no means be modified. Reminiscence reconsolidation is the speculation that, as soon as retrieved, there’s a quick window throughout which reminiscences may be modified. 

Scientists broadly settle for that reminiscence reconsolidation is an actual phenomenon, although the mechanisms by which it happens are debated. Researchers additionally recommend that reminiscences can play a key position within the formation of psychological well being issues.

In recent times, psychologists have been utilizing reminiscence reconsolidation to clarify how and why sure kinds of therapies work.  These psychologists recommend that diseases like anxiousness, melancholy, and PTSD all have roots in “emotional studying,” or the feelings that correspond with particular reminiscences. These reminiscences are sometimes unconscious with the sufferer unaware of their affect. 

When somebody is made conscious of this emotional studying, they’ll exchange it with more healthy emotional studying. 

What does this all need to do with EMDR? 

EMDR requires sufferers to recall distressing reminiscences. Based on reminiscence reconsolidation, they’re creating the chance for the reminiscence to be modified with new emotional studying. Some researchers even recommend that EMDR is “unintentionally primarily based in reminiscence reconsolidation.”

When you discuss to somebody who has benefited from EMDR, they’ll probably inform you how their traumatic reminiscences have modified. Some folks describe the reminiscence as wanting “smaller” or that they now see it as “black and white” of their thoughts’s eye. Though these feedback aren’t analysis, they do sound akin to the phenomenon of reminiscence reconsolidation.

Ultimate Ideas

So, how does EMDR work? No one is aware of for positive, however there are a number of believable theories on the market. 

Maybe the primary takeaway from this text is that, no matter the way it works, EMDR can provide aid from PTSD. When you’re struggling due to trauma, take into account reaching out to an EMDR therapist. They may help you’re taking profitable steps towards therapeutic.