EMDR therapy is a type of treatment that has gained popularity and acceptance in recent years. Perhaps your therapist informed you about it, or a friend or family member told you about it, or you heard about it on TV. You were completely unaware of it until now!
There is a benefit to learning more about EMDR, regardless of your present understanding. Perhaps it will help you, or your information will be useful to someone in your life! In any case, talking about mental health helps to decrease the stigma that still exists in our society around mental illness.
Today, we are going to tell you all the useful details about EMDR Therapy. So, keep on reading this blog!
What do you mean by EMDR Therapy?
It is a method of treatment that aims to help patients overcome memories of previous traumatic experiences. Especially that still bothering them. These bad memories may not have been fully processed by the brain. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocess) is a technique that helps patients to reprocess them effectively. You’ll feel better and be able to go on without experiencing any further discomfort.
Isn’t it amazing?
Concussion victims frequently suffer emotional and mental effects. It can influence their work, relationships, sleep, and a variety of other aspects of their lives. Unfortunately, concussion responses can last for years after a traumatic experience. And it is making life (or portions of life) unbearable for many people. It would be encouraging to know that there is a proven procedure for decreasing concussion’s effects. That’s where EMDR comes in handy.
How does EMDR Therapy work?
EMDR includes focusing on two separate questions at the same time:
- Remembering a distressing incident while performing various eye movements. The goal is to restructure your brain’s working memory mechanism. So that a distressing or memorable experience is less striking in your mind.
- Treatment sessions are typically 50 minutes long (though this might vary). And there is no specific number of sessions you will require overtime.
How can a victim experience less trauma just by shifting their eyes’ movement?
First, the EMDR therapist will guide the victim to recall their painful memory so that it may be felt on an emotional or bodily level while still being tolerated. The victim will try to identify a striking memory of the traumatic experience, negative beliefs brought on by trauma, and the trauma’s associated emotional and bodily symptoms.
The victim will then move his or her eyes back and forth with the therapist’s fingers, taps, or gestures as they analyze the memories and disturbing sensations. The eye movements help the brain to reprocess the traumatic experience. And also to negative beliefs, and emotional and physiological consequences in a way that reduces trauma.
This is possible because the client’s brain activates neural networks that lead to a healing experience. It also enhances the brain networks that link to happy memories, feelings, and ideas. In fact, it may be a tremendously therapeutic experience for trauma sufferers!
How long do EMDR therapy’s benefits last?
EMDR is not a quick treatment especially for depression. Because it’s main purpose is to define all the depression’s root causes. That is why most patients might see long-term results. Because there are different but several depression causes. Moreover, some people’s experiences may differ.
As per a research study, 88% of patients reported effective improvement after 20 sessions of EMDR therapy. Three months after the therapy sessions concluded, patients were contacted for a follow-up, and all kept up their progress.
Also as per another research, EMDR therapy defined symptom remission in almost 68% of people who are suffering from long-term depression. And the benefit may last a year.
Is EMDR the right treatment for you?
It is not incorrect to say that EMDR help the patients with their depression. One of the key advantages of using this therapy over others is that it has few to no negative effects for the majority of patients. So, if you believe EMDR might be able to help you with your depressing symptoms, it’s a pretty safe treatment that could be well worth your time.
Simply said, EMDR treatment is appropriate for those who have been affected by traumatic events. These are like violence, childhood neglect, life-threatening accidents, or other severe mental health illnesses just as anxiety or drug misuse.
Let’s sum up the discussion!
The major distinction between EMDR and other methods of psychotherapy is that EMDR doesn’t often demand the patient to go into great detail about their upsetting circumstances.
Also, patients are not expected to do “homework” in between EMDR sessions, although it suggests speeding up healing. EMDR therapy is a technique for dealing with unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain. These might be difficult to talk about in a regular therapeutic context.
