Jul 243 min read

EMDR Therapy: All About The Approach to Processing Trauma

Updated: Aug 21

EMDR therapy, short for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, is a type of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other types of mental health therapies. It's effective, works more quickly than other types of therapy, and is beneficial for those who have a hard time talking about their trauma.

Most clients find that EMDR therapy allows them to heal their emotional wounds when other forms of therapy aren't helping. Here's a look at what you can expect from undergoing EMDR therapy in Philadelphia and its benefits.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR therapy is performed by a therapist who has you move your eyes, such as in a back-and-forth pattern, while you bring up traumatic memories and process them.

The therapist may have you focus on their fingers as they move their hand back and forth, or you may use a tool you track with your eyes or a stimulus that makes you move your eyes.

What's Involved in Treatment With EMDR?

The therapy is an eight-phase treatment that starts with the therapist and client identifying a trauma memory to address. The therapist then has the client visually track their hand or a tool with their eyes as the client processes the memory and associated feelings. If the treatment is successful, the client's thinking changes from the negative to realizing they survived the incident and can overcome what happened.

The initial phase of treatment changes the way the client thinks without the use of talk therapy, but the therapist still needs to support the shift in thinking. EMDR therapists in Montgomery County, PA take the client to the next phase and begin healing the emotional wound for good.

The Theory Behind How EMDR Works

The connection between rapid eye movements and the release of traumatic memories isn't well understood, but it has been proven to work. EMDR centers around the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, a theory about how the brain stores memory. Francine Shapiro, PhD, who also created and developed EMDR, developed the AIP model.

At the theory's core is the knowledge that the brain processes and stores normal and traumatic memories differently. Normal memories are stored in a relaxed or smooth manner and connected to other memories for later recall. In contrast, trauma memories are stored incorrectly, and the brain doesn't do a good job of connecting them with other memories.

Trauma memories are made worse by the fact the brain can disconnect from the body during a traumatic event, which means the physical sensations don't fully correlate to the visual memories.

Improper storage results in a mental wound that won't heal by itself. The mind thinks that the traumatic experience hasn't ended because it never got the message to close and link the memory.

It still thinks the danger is still present, and newer traumatic experiences serve to reinforce the negative memory. The lack of closure makes it easy to trigger a PTSD response and makes the client feel as if they're reliving the trauma over and over.

Repairing the Mind and Healing Through EMDR

EMDR works by reprocessing the trauma memory in a safe and guided fashion without the need to talk about it. Going back over the memory helps the brain reformat and reprocess it so it can close the memory and ultimately heal.

Getting Therapeutic Help for PTSD

At Truth Center for Health & Healing, we're a group of mental health professionals who want to provide our clients with compassionate care. We offer a variety of therapies to help you find your way to living a life free from trauma and its triggers.