What is EMDR Therapy & How Does it Help?

In this video, therapist Kailey Coats (LMHC) explains how EMDR therapy works to ease your nervous system, release you from painful emotions/memories of the past, and create a process for healing in counseling

Gifted in trauma therapy & EMDR, Kailey has conducted more than 1500 therapy appointments!

Read more about Kailey at her online profile, or schedule directly using the link below!

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How Does EMDR Therapy Work?

EMDR therapy works by helping you "reprocess" traumatic memories through the use of bilateral stimulation, like rapid eye movements, while recalling the disturbing event. The emotional energy of a painful, scary, or confusing event is what makes it unbearable for us! But EMDR allows the brain to 1) processes the memory and 2) reduce the emotional charge it carries. Not only has this been shown to reduce or even eliminate conditions like PTSD, it also reconnects our bodies in places we may have “cut off” or stored the event. In short, EMDR aims to heal the way we store painful, scary, or confusing memories.

Core Elements of EMDR Therapy:

• Bilateral stimulation:
  The the use of back-and-forth stimulation, usually through eye movements, but can also involve alternating sounds or taps, which is believed to facilitate the processing of traumatic memories. 
  

• Accessing the memory:
  During a session, the therapist guides the patient to focus on a specific traumatic memory, identifying related thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. This is done slowly, measuring discomfort, and usually in short, manageable steps.
  

• Reprocessing:
  While recalling the memory, a visual “bilateral” stimulation is used, engaging both sides of the brain and allowing for new brain connections (and desensitization of the memory).
  

• Adaptive information processing model:
  Because traumatic memories are stored in a maladaptive way, your brain really hasn’t processed them! But EMDR helps our brain and body store the memory securely, which should release us from triggers, avoidance, or retraumatization.

What happens during an EMDR session?

• Preparation:
  The therapist will carefully discuss the traumatic memory with you, identifying key elements and possibly the negative beliefs associated with it. NOTE: There is an emphasis on making this a safe process, not a “memory purging” or re-experience of trauma.
  

• Stimulation phase:
  The therapist will guide you to focus on the memory slowly, while performing the bilateral stimulation (e.g., moving eyes side-to-side). 
  

• Processing:
  As this happens, you may experience shifts in thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations, which are important and part of the process!
  

• Closure:
  At the end of the session, the therapist will help you to integrate the processed information and come back to a calm, centered state where you feel free to go back out into the world.