What Is EMDR Therapy Used For?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy that might assist an individual in coping with and processing troubling events. EMDR therapy was discovered in the late 1980s by psychologist Francine Shapiro. EMDR therapy is very effective for patients who suffer from trauma or PTSD. EMDR follows to plan how to tackle the traumatic memories via guided eye movements and other types of bilateral stimulation. This lessened the emotional effect of those memories and helped the mind heal further.
Disorders linked to trauma EMDR treatment is used for example
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): This technique is particularly effective for individuals with PTSD as it assists in reprocessing traumatic memories that causes sleep disturbances, nightmares, and general discomfort.
Anxiety Disorders: EMDR can assist those with anxiety associated with past memories, events or situations to reduce their distress.
Depression: It has proven successful for someone who is having depressive symptoms from past trauma or pain experience in their life.
Addiction and Behavioral Issues: Another possibility that EMDR can help address include working through the underlying traumas and negative beliefs we might harbor that fuel subsequent addictive self-destructive behaviors.
EMDR therapy, unlike conventional talk therapy, where past events are discussed with a therapist and analyzed, focuses on how your brain codes traumatic memories. By means of bilateral stimulation provided by guided eye movements, the reprocessing of these memories can allow one to lessen the intensity of distressful emotions tied to the memory, thus facilitating the process of leaving the past behind. While her healing occurred deeply and it was definitely gradual EMDR did have these major impacts on decreasing her anxiety attacks from reoccurring, trauma symptoms, and sleep problems.
Which Therapy Is Better for Trauma, EMDR, CBT, or DBT?
How do EMDR, CBT and DBT compare: So what type of therapy is most effective for trauma recovery? Every type of therapy is useful individually and which one is applied depends upon a person’s wants and history of trauma.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR is a very powerful type of therapy in people who have had trauma or PTSD. It targeted traumatic memories directly and would work through them without the patient feeling the intensity of traumatic memories. EMDR also involves an eight-phase approach to enable a person to think about traumatic events once again. Scientifically, it has proven to cure trauma more quickly than many other forms of therapy. EMDR has been considered the best alternative for patients experiencing specific problems in relation to stressors.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — One of the oldest therapeutic resources used to heal from a broad spectrum of mental disorders. It allows patients to learn about identifying and changing the negative thinking patterns that make them depressed. Cognitive behavioral therapy works very well for those whose traumatic experiences have led them to negative thought and belief patterns. EMDR therapy is different from cognitive behavioral therapy which emphasizes more on the mental side of trauma, especially to come up with better ways of managing stress and cognitive skills.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
This is particularly useful for those who have had stress underlying poor emotion regulation, as with, for example, the patient with Borderline personality disorder. By this method, one is taught to handle intense feelings, avoid self-injury behavior, and improve relationships with others. Although DBT is not as trauma-focused as EMDR or CBT, it may be helpful for those whose trauma has resulted in impaired emotional regulation and difficulty maintaining relationships.
Choosing the Right Therapy
Individuals who have specific, disturbing memories of trauma that they would like to work through and get over are often encouraged towards seeking EMDR treatment. DBT is best for people who need help regulating their emotions and dealing with their relationships, while CBT is ideal for people who need to change negative thought habits emanating from trauma.
The type of patient and his needs will determine the best treatment. It is always advisable to choose the best type of therapy for the patient after consulting with a mental health professional. That should be the case depending with the kind of trauma the patient has gone through and the treatment goals.
What Are the Effects of EMDR Therapy with a Bad Therapist?
Getting EMDR from a skilled and experienced therapist can completely change your life, if not, then it can. However, some bad things can occur if you are working with an untrained or ‘bad’ therapist. EMDR treatment works if the therapist can keep the client safe and follow the rules for EMDR treatment. Here are some things that could go wrong if you work with an EMDR therapist who isn’t licensed or hasn’t done much practice:
Increased Anxiety and Emotional Distress
If the doctor doesn’t do it right, EMDR can make people more worried and angry. Clients may feel too much when memories and feelings come up if you don’t keep the right pace. They might not be able to heal after this. People who are already having a hard time keeping their feelings in check after a lot of stress may find this really hard.
Incomplete Processing of Traumatic Memories
To use EMDR you must cycle through painful memories thereby processing them until they don’t bother you as much. The reason is because if the therapist isn’t properly trained, they might not finish the process and leave the person with unanswered feelings. Not fully processing things can make the person more upset after meetings and may make them feel worse instead of better.
Trust and Safety Issues
The place where EMDR treatment takes place must be safe and trusting for it to work. That person might not be good at building trust or setting professional boundaries, which could make the client feel dangerous or even re-traumatized. This could make the patient not only less likely to trust the doctor, but also less likely to ever need help again.
Difficulty with Emotional Closure
If they are good at EMDR, they know how to make the person feel emotionally stable at the end of each treatment. You might not get enough closure from your doctor if they aren’t skilled enough. This could leave you to deal with your feelings on your own. This could lead to pain, fear, or even memories of the past.
To avoid these issues, it is important to find an EMDR therapist who has been officially trained in the therapy and follows the rules set by EMDR certification groups. Make sure the doctor has a lot of experience so that people can get the most out of EMDR treatment and stay headache-free.
What Is EMDR Therapy and Treatment?
EMDR was found to be a method of treatment of traumatic experiences in a structured and unique manner. Some treatments involve talking or thinking about feelings. Whereas EMDR allows people to get rid of painful memories and lessen the emotional impact of associated emotions by stimulating two sides of the brain. It is usually done with guided eye movements, taps, or tones.
This procedure involves the therapist having the client believe about a distressing or painful event while the therapist signals the client to make an eye movement or provide other form of bilateral stimulation to the client. Eight steps make up the process most of the time:
- History Taking and Treatment Planning: The therapist applies information gathering of the client’s history and present problems to create an apt plan of management.
- Preparation: The therapist explains to the client what the EMDR therapy process is, and teaches client coping skills to deal with distressing emotions they may have.
- Assessment: First the therapist finds specific traumatic memories to treat and then sets goals of processing.
- Desensitization: When the client engages in bilateral stimulation, he recalls the traumatic memory and reprocesses it.
- Installation: By which the client continues to process the memory, positive beliefs are reinforced.
- Body Scan: The therapist will make sure that there are no lingering physical sensations with the trauma to ensure full emotional and physical release.
- Closure: The grounding techniques at the end of each session help ground the client.
- Reevaluation: The therapist checks to see whether additional sessions are needed based on how successful they’ve been in changing behavior.
During EMDR therapy, clients often say that the painful memories of their stressful events become less intense. Through this process, clients learn to look at these events with less emotional attachment, which helps them heal and move on.
EMDR treatment is very effective because it is structured for many of the problems that result from trauma such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and more. EMDR can also help you if you’re not coping so well with the mental impacts of previous events. It can help them feel better and lead healthier, more balanced lives.
Conclusion
EMDR therapy is working for many people coping with stress in extremely effective ways. EMDR is a way people use to overcome and counteract traumatic memories. It involves careful direction and structured sessions. We at Better Lives Building Tribes think that everyone should be able to try EMDR therapy and other healing methods in order to live a healthier, happier life.
