EMDR Therapy
What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming) is a trauma informed, evidence-based intervention shown to help with acute traumas and attachment wounds. Research shows moving your eyes left and right for intervals of about 30 seconds, similar to how your eyes move during REM sleep, helps a person process negative memories.
Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR bypasses a lot of talking and has you move through negative memories as quickly as possible. This is a good intervention for those who are apprehensive about staying in a negative mindset as they talk about a problem they are experiencing. EMDR is highly structured. This therapeutic intervention uses a script, standard protocols, and simple measurements during the session to help you understand how you are processing the problem or upsetting memory.
How EMDR Can Help You Heal
As the name suggests, EMDR results in a desensitization to certain painful memories and beliefs. It doesn’t erase memories and you won’t forget the difficult thing that happened, but when you do remember it, it won’t hurt so much. As a byproduct, that painful memory won’t destabilize you in small or large ways as it has in the past. EMDR also gives you the opportunity to reprogram your beliefs about the upsetting memory. For example, if you were in a car accident, you might begin to believe you are never safe. And while it was true you weren’t safe in the moment of the car accident, it’s not true all the time. EMDR can help reprogram that belief into something closer to the truth: most of the time you are safe and sometimes you aren’t. It helps you see reality more clearly and helps you understand you are a capable person who can handle many situations.
During the session, the client will process a negative memory with the expectation that the level of distress they feel about that memory will decrease. Ultimately we will work towards the distress being non-existent when recalling that memory. When that happens, we’ll introduce a more factual belief about that event, so the true belief is established in the person’s mind. Then, when that memory does come up, it is less painful and you will have a clearer belief system based in reality, rather than based on the traumatic experience.
Integrating EMDR and IFS
As a trained EMDR therapist and IFS practitioner, it is likely that I will use a combination of both therapeutic modalities.
Differences between EMDR and IFS
Interestingly, both EMDR and IFS require the client to visualize and spend a lot of time inside their mind. This is the place where the healing happens.
In IFS, we spend a lot of time talking. I will gently prompt and guide you powerfully through all of the thoughts, emotions, and associations that come up in your mind. EMDR, on the other hand, wants to move through these thoughts and emotions as quickly as possible, so there isn’t a lot of time spent talking.
How I integrate EMDR and IFS
If you were to get stuck at a certain point while processing a negative memory, I might begin to utilize IFS to help you get unstuck. For example, during an EMDR session a client might bring up a part of them that is glad a negative thing happened because it made them grow. Later in the session they may bring up a part of themselves that wishes that negative thing had never happened because it caused, and continues to cause, so much pain. If one of those parts continues to be prominent in the EMDR session, I might ask the client to stay with that part for a few rounds of bilateral stimulation to see what comes up. Spending time with, and listening to, that one part can help you become unstuck. You can move forward, process that negative memory, and heal.
Read more about working with polarized parts in IFS here: https://kateykingra.com/working-with-polarized-parts-in-ifs/