Trauma and EMDR

Posted: August 28, 2016

The past few days I've been attending an EMDR training. EMDR is a treatment technique to help people overcome their trauma/PTSD. EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Normally, when we process information in the brain it's like putting files in an organized way, like when we organize a filing cabinet. When we experience trauma, the ability to do that is gone, we store bits and pieces of information and many times do not have a clear picture of what we went through. We basically get stuck and have a huge mess in your brain - the files are disorganized and you can't close the file cabinet.

EMDR uses dual stimulation of the brain to help you adaptively process the events and store them in an adaptive way. This way, they can no longer hold that "grip" on you. After a fairly short time (few sessions) your traumatic memories will become a narrative of a memory, but will no longer be associated with the emotional and physical responses you used to get when thinking about the events or memories. It is a really effective treatment techniques that has lot of research to support it. Some of it you can read here, and there are many books released about it. . I'm so excited to start practicing this technique to be able to help so many people who are dealing with the after affect of trauma and the debilitating emotions associated with it.

It is important to remember that many times as a result of trauma people experience other life debilitating mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. In many cases with PTSD and trauma people turn to drugs and alcohol for solution and find themselves getting addicted to substances to numb their emotions. In other cases, people who do not know how to handle their emotions even become suicidal or mutilate themselves. There are many negative effects to trauma. You can read much more about it if you would like here. You can also find more information here to understand treatment for trauma as well.

The reason I am sharing this in a blog is because I would like to remind people who suffer from PTSD, or any type of trauma that there is hope and they can feel better. What people forget, or just do not realize is that almost all of us have some type of trauma. For some people one event can be harmless and for some it becomes traumatic. For some people there are small "t" trauma, and for others a big "T" trauma. It all depends how disturbing an event might have been for us and how it affects us today in our lives. We can work and process any type of trauma, and be able to let go of the baggage we carry with it. If you think you or someone you know would benefit from this type of treatment please have them contact me here.