What Does EMDR Therapy Involve?

man showing and to woman

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, known as EMDR therapy, has helped millions of individuals overcome trauma and other mental health issues. EMDR focuses on adjusting your feelings, ideas, or actions that follow a stressful trauma or painful experience. It has become a mainstream treatment because its theory and methods have been known worldwide to be worthy as a healing  PTSD therapy. 

AIP Model:

The foundation of EMDR Therapy’s effectiveness is the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. It is a theorem regarding how your brain saves memories and thoughts. Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., who invented EMDR, says that it is the idea that acknowledges your brain retains normal and traumatic memories differently. Your brain stores memories quickly when things go according to plan. Trauma is similar to a wound that hasn’t been given sufficient time to heal in your brain because the brain didn’t get the signal that the threat had passed, as it didn’t have a chance to heal timely.

Current events can reinforce traumatic memories from the past and frequently support negative experiences. Additionally, it harms your mind. Your mind is too sensitive to anything you see, listen to, smelt or perceive during a tragic incident, just as your body is more susceptible to pain from an injury. Your mind tries to repress memories to restrict their accessibility because they are upsetting. However, this repression is imperfect, so undesirable symptoms, feelings, and the “injury can still bring on behaviors.”

Triggers:

These incorrectly stuck and stored memories will be “triggered” by sights, sounds, and odors related to or likeness to a traumatic incident. Unlike other memories, these can elicit intense emotions of fear, anxiety, rage, or panic.

Repair and Reprocessing:

To access memories of a traumatic incident, you must go through EMDR. Accessing those memories aids in the desensitization and reprocessing of the unpleasant event when memories are combined with eye movements and guided directions. This desensitization and reprocessing aids in the “healing” of the mental damage caused by that memory. You won’t feel like you’re reliving it when you recall what happened, and the associated emotions will be much easier to control.

The flashback, for example, illustrates post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, where poor networking and storage lead your mind to retrieve those memories in an uncontrolled, distorted, and overwhelming way. Because of this, many who frequently experience flashbacks say they feel as though they are reliving a traumatic experience. Thus, help is needed. 

The best EMDR Therapy in Los Angeles helps you to turn around your traumatic past. Thus, you can live a healthy present life that’s filled with peace.

The Concluding Thought:

Globally, EMDR therapy is famous and preferable for treating trauma and other painful experiences. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense in the U.S. have listed EMDR as a “best practice” for treating veterans with PTSD. It is a tried and tested therapy that one can opt for from a skilled Therapist.

 

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *