Have you ever gotten really angry at something and then stopped yourself when you realized whatever was agitating you wasn’t that big of a deal? So why did you get so bent out of shape about it?
It could be that a memory of a long past event similar in some regards to the current experience stirred in your subconscious, triggering the response you felt way back then and bleeding into the present moment emotionally.
Some traumatic memories are so overwhelming that they are not stored properly in the brain, and they can surface unexpectedly and cause extreme distress all over again. A number of therapists have found that Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an effective approach to process these repressed memories and help reduce the emotional charge associated with them.
The theory behind EMDR is that many psychological difficulties are the result of distressing life experiences which have not been stored in memory properly and are left unprocessed or blocked in some sense.
“These suppressed memories can flair up and affect relationships, decisions and the things we do,” said Suzanne Sunkel, an EMDR therapist in Vero Beach. “Basically, the goal of EMDR is to rethink these memories and think differently about an experience. EMDR involves bilateral stimulation, either through tapping the side of one hand and then the other, or by following a light from side to side as you think about a troubling memory. Some patients will do both simultaneously.
“The bilateral stimulation decreases that emotionality and during the EMDR session, there’s a process called adaptive information processing where your brain starts to adapt the way you process the information,” Sunkel continued. “It shifts to a positive. If you start with a negative thought about yourself, such as, ‘I don’t matter,’ because that’s what your boyfriend made you believe when he broke up with you years ago, then we contrast it with ‘I do matter.’ By the end of the session your brain will be going with ‘I do matter.’ You’ll start to shift that perception of your self-image, and it will not go back.”
EMDR therapy was founded in 1987 by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro and it’s one of the most widely researched and used methods of treating trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression and OCD. It utilizes the body’s natural information-handling system to treat trauma and adverse life experiences, and helps the brain process memories while removing the stress response.
Reshaping the intense emotions of a past memory improves one’s present and future states of mind.
According to a major study found in the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine, “Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an empirically validated treatment for trauma … The positive therapeutic outcomes rapidly achieved without homework or detailed description of the disturbing event offer the medical community an efficient treatment approach” for a wide range of psychological and emotional problems.
Normal memories are stored by a part of the brain called the hippocampus. The hippocampus acts as a librarian that catalogues or processes events and stores them in the appropriate place.
However, some events like a car accident, abuse, violence or disasters are so overwhelming that the hippocampus doesn’t do its job properly. When this happens, the memories are stored in their raw, unprocessed form in isolation in the limbic system, which is the emotional center of the mammalian brain. The limbic system is separated from the brain’s neocortex, where executive functioning happens, and these unprocessed memories may cause maladaptive processes. New experiences may trigger these dysfunctional memory networks and cause negative effects, reinforcing the traumatic memory.
“EMDR is like REM sleep on steroids,” Sunkel explained. “REM sleep is the active part of your sleep when you are dreaming. Your eyes go back and forth (bilateral stimulation) as the mind processes regular everyday stress – but it can’t process any kind of trauma. EMDR imitates the bilateral motion of REM sleep and helps change the perception of the trauma and turn it into a story rather than emotional charged reaction. The therapy works very quickly. What could take 20 years in talk therapy could take only a couple of sessions with EMDR.”
Indeed, according to “The Role of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy in Medicine,” the study from the National Institutes of Health, “84 percent to 90 percent of single-trauma victims no longer had PTSD after three 90-minute EMDR sessions.”
However, “we don’t just dive into EMDR treatment immediately,” Sunkel said. “It’s a process. During the first session we talk, and I find out what the clients want out of therapy. I ask what is bothering them and assess if they would be a good fit for EMDR.
“Next, we work on grounding skills or things that keep them focused. It might be something as simple as finding your happy place and staying there or focusing on four things you hear.
Grounding skills are important because anxiety comes when you’re projecting into the future and depression comes when you are thinking about the past.
“When you are in the moment you are OK. I also create a screen shot, or timeline of past events like your father yelling at you when you were 5 or not being chosen for dodgeball in school. This helps us get the negative core belief that’s holding you back. The two biggest are ‘I’m not good enough’ and ‘I don’t matter.’
“After assessing the negative memories and events we begin the desensitization stage which reprocesses the disturbing memory into an adaptive resolution,” Sunkel continued. “This is done with EMDR bilateral stimulation during which the positive is linked to the traumatic event or memory.
“All the while I am watching the patient’s body language and breathing to see if any shifts have occurred. If they are still feeling tension, I will suggest calming techniques like envisioning a waterfall flowing through from their head to their toes. Each session is closed with grounding procedures and then we’ll talk about what transpired. A reevaluation ensures that the target memories and current and future triggers are fully processed.
“People often describe the aftereffects of EMDR as ‘weird,’” Sunkel revealed. “They just find themselves thinking and acting differently because their core belief has shifted. It’s done automatically almost like osmosis.”
Suzanne Sunkel has her master’s degree in clinical Mental Health Counseling, is a certified EMDR therapist, a licensed mental health counselor LMHC and a nationally certified counselor NCC. She is affiliated with Professional Counseling and Services of Vero Beach, 1925 20th Street, 772-217-6255.
