Have you experienced a traumatic event recently? Do you find yourself being easily startled or always on edge, as if waiting for something bad to happen? Are you having trouble sleeping at night? Do you find yourself feeling more irritable lately? Or maybe you feel guilty or ashamed of what happened? Do you avoid certain places or people or things that remind you of your traumatic experience?
Do you struggle with PTSD and aren’t sure what to do about it?
It can be difficult to find help for PTSD. It’s not an easy thing to deal with, especially when it affects every moment of your day, sometimes in ways you don’t even realize. But counseling works. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in particular was developed with trauma and PTSD in mind.
Traumatic Memories
The human brain tends to store memories smoothly. It stores them away and associates them with certain emotions or sounds relating to them. But that’s not what happens with traumatic memories. When the brain tries to process traumatic memories, something goes wrong.
Traumatic memories aren’t allowed to be over. You’re not allowed to heal from them. The danger from these events never feels over, because the brain still believes a lot of it is ongoing. That’s why you feel like you’re reliving them sometimes. And that’s why newer experiences can reinforce that trauma, even when they’re not directly related.
Reprocessing
The aim of EMDR is to help you heal from those traumatic memories. It does so by giving your brain a push in the right direction. It helps your brain store those memories the way it should have the first time around.
The name EMDR suggests the use of eye movement, but the truth is, other senses can be used too: sound and touch are common. Maybe your counselor asks you to move your eyes from left to right. Or maybe they alternate between tapping the back of your left or right hand. Either way, these movements encourage your brain to heal. It encourages them to reprocess the traumatic memories in a way that won’t cause you so much distress.
Therapy Sessions
EDMR is different from talking therapy. There isn’t much talking, to begin with. You need to explain the basics of your trauma when you first walk into the room, but you won’t be asked to go into much detail. You’ll need to find any negative beliefs you hold about yourself as a result of that experience, and you’ll also need to come up with some positive beliefs to replace them.
It’s only after this preliminary work is done that you move on to the actual reprocessing of traumatic memories. You’ll be guided by the counselor, asked to think of a specific memory while your senses are stimulated, alternating left and right. During the same process, you’ll also learn to let go of your negative beliefs and you’ll replace them with positive ones. Once that traumatic memory no longer causes you distress, you move on to a different memory.
Recovery
Recovery isn’t easy, but EMDR is very efficient. While it’s by no means an easy fix, it does show results faster than other types of therapy. Recovery can take from several weeks to a few months.
EMDR helps people dealing with PTSD and traumatic memories. So, if this is something you struggle with, something that causes you distress and interferes with your daily life, then you might want to give EMDR a try. Even if you’re not sure if it’s for you, that’s what the first appointment is for, to figure out what kind of help is right for you and help you get it. Contact us soon to learn more about EMDR Therapy or Trauma Therapy.
