Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing - A New Technique
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by: SuFox
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Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing is a rather long and complex title for a therapeutic tool that is new and can be quickly learned and is easy to put into practice.
EMDR was discovered in the late 1980s by and American, Francine Shapiro. It is now used in trauma centres in many countries, with a good deal of research to back up its effectiveness.
What happens in an EMDR session?
The client describes the traumatic memory and is helped to focus on the very worst aspect and the associated feelings and then describes the negative belief they may have internalized as a result.
Let's take a man that had been caught up in a car accident who believed that he should have been more careful. He might be thinking 'I'm an idiot'. The client is then helped by the therapist to frame the belief that this man really wants, which could be something along the lines of 'I do my very best to make sure I'm safe.' These thought and feeling are given ratings on a scale of 1-10.
The client must keep in mind the negative thoughts and feeling as he holds on to the memory. He then watches as the practitioner moves his or her hand in front of the client's face in a series of movements. There is then a pause.
The client says whatever he's thinking, feeling or noticing in his body, then the hand movements start again, and this is repeated until therapist and client seem to have got to the end and nothing new is coming up. They return to the original memory, the thoughts and the feelings and rate them again. The ratings provide an objective measure of change.
How does it work?
It appears that the brain is unable to process trauma memories in the normal way. They get stuck in the limbic system where they can be easily triggered. Duel brain stimulation seems to aid these memories shift to the cerebral cortex where normal memories are stored. In this way they lose their emotional charge.
Clients who've had EMDR treatment report that although the memory of what happened is still there, the frightening or unpleasant feelings that accompanied it have disappeared, and they feel generally better with themselves.
The usual way of doing EMDR is with eye movements but other methods involving bilateral stimulation can be used. This would include tapping on knees or hands alternately or wearing headphones and listening to sounds. It can be most effective also where talk therapy finds it difficult to shift pattern and core beliefs.
For a simple trauma, like a road traffic accident, six sessions may be all that is needed to process the feelings. More complex trauma is best treated in an on going therapeutic relationship.
About the Author
Su Fox is an experienced UK psychotherapist and counsellor who can be contacted at london psychotherapy or london counselling. She is also author of a book for complementary therapists: Relating To Clients.
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