A reaction to trauma can look like a multitude of things and most of them are not in your control. Trauma is funny, it can creep up on you months or even years after an event. You may not know why are having nightmares, feeling strong, uncontrollable emotions, experiencing strange body symptoms, having disturbing thoughts that disrupt your day, feeling fear or anxiety about a situation that hasn’t happened to an extreme level and even depression may be a sign of unprocessed trauma in the body. Trauma can make a person feel helpless and out of control.
All of these symptoms are your body telling you something is wrong and your body and mind are trying to heal, however without some professional guidance and treatment the real healing may never occur. EMDR therapy allows for healthy and fully processed treatment to occur, client’s often experience huge changes in feeling, thinking and behaviors. Often treatments last only 8 to 10 sessions, sometimes less and sometimes more, but the results are long lasting. Here are some of the benefits of EMDR therapy
EMDR uses the body to heal
Research in the last few decades on trauma has shown that traumatic events, whether single event or long-term events are stored in the body. The quick explanation is that our nervous systems become activated in fight, flight or freeze and if our body is unable to process fully a traumatic event, the trauma may be caught in the body. Body based therapies are one of the best ways to help release this trauma by activating our natural, biological healing systems. EMDR facilitates the natural healing process and helps move feelings associated with traumatic events out of the body.
EMDR uses the brain to heal
Our brains are amazing, but when trauma was unable to be processed in the body our brains may become stuck and also unable to process the trauma. It’s not a personal failure to have feelings and unprocessed trauma, it’s natural and happens to just about everyone on the planet. The brain tries to protect itself during a traumatic event and sometimes we end up with blocks, emotional resistance or negative beliefs surrounding ourselves and the events. The brain does want to heal, it just doesn’t know how. EMDR helps the brain process and remove the emotional and cognitive stress surrounding the trauma. EMDR unlocks these stored memories and helps the brain finish the processing of the memories so that a client can eventually feel less of a charge around the event. In the EMDR treatment process the brain reframes the situation often empowering the client to feel positive about themselves and make constructive changes in their life. The process can be transformative and confidence building.
EMDR brings in other therapy modalities
Though EMDR is a body and brain-based therapy treatment the healing process happens with a combination of effective therapies. EMDR brings in elements of cognitive behavioral therapy which can help diffuse negative thoughts and beliefs. Mindfulness and noticing what is happening emotionally and in the body in the present moment is also part of the therapy. A softer version exposure therapy is used in the EMDR process but the client always has a choice and control over what they want to work on. Somatic Experiencing therapy often is interwoven with EMDR to help clients feel emotions and understand that is happening in the body during treatment. All these modalities not only increase the processing of trauma but skills of each type of therapy modality are learned and can be used in everyday life.
Long-term results happen
Many volumes of research have been done on EMDR and the long-term effects of the treatment. Compared to many other treatment modalities, EMDR is proving to have lasting effects on the reduction of unpleasant emotions, thoughts and symptoms of trauma. Many recent studies show that 80% of single-trauma survivors were able to reduce PTSD symptoms and that the symptoms do not return.