EMDR Therapy
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, available locally at Reid Health, allows people to heal from past traumas and upsetting life events.
An innovative therapy to process trauma
Trauma is a contributing factor for most mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and substance use disorders. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a special type of psychotherapy specifically designed to help people process traumas.
Whether related to a disturbing event, childhood abuse, a natural or manmade disaster, or domestic violence, traumatic memories can get buried and pop up during moments of everyday life. When they arise, they can drastically interfere with your quality of life and overall wellness.
EMDR uses certain eye movements and other sensory inputs to stimulate your brain’s natural healing process and help you overcome negative memories.
EMDR therapy at Reid Health
At Reid Health, we believe everyone in East Central Indiana and West Central Ohio should have access to the behavioral health treatments that’ll help them the most, including EMDR.
Our multidisciplinary team is trained in EMDR and uses it, along with other trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapies, to help people overcome trauma and treat symptoms, such as grief, that might be unrelated to a trauma-specific diagnosis.
If a mental health professional recommends you participate in EMDR therapy, you can access this innovative therapy without ever leaving our community. We offer EMDR therapy as part of our comprehensive behavioral health services, which are available on both an inpatient and outpatient basis.
What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy uses rapid eye movements (similar to what happens during REM sleep), tones, taps, or a combination of these while remembering a past trauma. It’s based on the Adaptive Information Processing model, which is a theory that suggests the brain processes normal memories differently than it stores traumatic ones.
Typically, your brain grabs memories throughout the day and files them in a way that connects them to other memories. However, when you experience a trauma, your brain doesn’t create those same connections — it keeps traumatic memories away from other things in your memory bank. Because they’re stored separately, your brain can’t process them in its usual way. The traumatic memories essentially get stuck in the brain, and they can get triggered by events of the present, causing you to have symptoms of trauma-related mental health conditions.
EMDR therapy helps to change how your brain stores and processes these traumatic memories. During an EMDR therapy session, you’ll perform left-to-right eye movements, or your therapist will use taps or auditory tones while you think about a traumatic memory. The combination of the movements and memory is intended to make the memory less vivid or emotional, which should help reduce your symptoms.
Does EMDR work?
Research shows EMDR therapy is an effective treatment for trauma and associated mental health issues. It works because it reproduces bilateral stimulation that occurs naturally during the REM phase of sleep, causing two parts of your brain to collaborate to process a traumatic memory.
It also offers the benefit of not having to talk about the traumatic event. Although talk therapy can be very helpful in processing trauma, some memories might be too difficult to discuss in detail. EMDR therapy offers an option that might save people from a potentially upsetting conversation.
What is EMDR therapy used for?
EMDR was first introduced in 1987 as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but mental health professionals increasingly use it to treat other conditions associated with trauma.
EMDR treatment might be recommended as part of a treatment plan for:
- Anxiety disorders
- Attachment disorder
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Mood disorders
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Personality disorders
- Substance use disorder
In addition to treating specific mental health conditions, EMDR therapy might also be recommended for treating certain trauma-related symptoms, including behavioral problems, problems with self-esteem, grief, and even chronic pain.
EMDR therapy can help people of many ages, including teenagers and adults. Some healthcare providers specialize in EMDR therapy for children.
Comprehensive care for PTSD
If you’re experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, you can access advanced care at Reid Health. Our behavioral health team has specialized training in diagnosing, treating, and managing PTSD.
Here, you can get comprehensive treatment for PTSD, including psychotherapy and medication management.
Although most PTSD treatment is done on an outpatient basis, we also offer inpatient care for those experiencing severe symptoms. Once your symptoms stabilize, you’ll be discharged from the hospital to continue treatment on an outpatient basis.
What happens in an EMDR session?
Before you begin EMDR therapy, your provider will talk you through what to expect during your therapy sessions. This’ll include coaching you on how to do the rapid eye movements or other bilateral stimulation that’s part of therapy.
Most EMDR therapy sessions include eight phases:
- History-taking: You share a full history of symptoms and triggers for symptoms. You’ll also have opportunities for memory recollection and goal setting.
- Preparation: During the preparation phase, your behavioral health specialist will provide information and support. They’ll explain the process of the upcoming steps and assessment.
- Assessment: You identify the traumatic memory you’re working on and talk about how it makes you feel.
- Desensitization: You focus on that memory and work to reprocess it while participating in rapid eye movement or other bilateral stimulation.
- Installation: You focus on a positive belief you want to associate with that memory.
- Body scan: You concentrate on how you feel when you think about a traumatic memory, including any physical or mental symptoms you have.
- Closure: You’re coached on how to stabilize between EMDR sessions.
- Reevaluation: You discuss with your provider how you’re feeling and how effectively treatment is working.
Although reevaluation is last on this list of phases, it’s actually done at the beginning of your next EMDR session, serving as a wrap-up from the previous session and the start of the new one.
It usually takes between one and three sessions to process a specific memory. The number of EMDR sessions you need will vary depending on the trauma you experienced, your progress toward processing the traumatic memories you have, and how many memories are associated with the trauma.
Each time you begin working to process a traumatic memory, it’s entirely normal to feel uncomfortable at first. Know those feelings are usually temporary and go away after a short time as you work through therapy.
Why choose Reid for EMDR therapy
When you’ve been diagnosed with a mental health condition, you just want to get back to feeling like yourself. Getting the care you need in a convenient location close to home is a priority.
You can find that care at Reid Health. We offer comprehensive care for mental health, including EMDR therapy to help the brain process trauma.
You’ll receive care from a team of multidisciplinary providers, including psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, and substance use counselors. These providers collaborate to provide you with a truly seamless care experience, helping you get the treatment and support you need to feel better and improve your quality of life.