Call me weird but my niche is trauma. Over the last 25
years I have gotten really good at hearing, discussing all kinds of awful
stories from clients. I can hold these stories, and at the end of the day, I go
home and live my life as if some spacey force field surrounds me from absorbing
the pain into my own heart. Recently however, I decided that I could not be a
trauma therapist if I did not know anything about EMDR therapy. The most I
remembered from the first time I heard about it (in around 1993) was about
watching a pencil eraser go back and forth and somehow people felt better
afterwards. It seemed a little like voodoo to me. But after the last 3 months
of training, I decided that it’s more like magic.
Real magic, like having my own wand in Diagon Alley
with Harry Potter and friends and knowing all the right spells and potions at
my disposal. Okay let me qualify this: I am a total newbie. I literally just
finished the second weekend at the Maigberger Institute in Boulder, Colorado,
with the amazing Barb Maiberger. Barb teaches four groups per month, then follows
them up with online meeting consultations. I have had a private practice for a
few years and many of my established clients were psyched to try this modality
with me and I have been able to witness some amazing things in a short period
of time. So before I say more – just what the heck is EMDR therapy, you ask? Well,
I am here to tell you, since one of the assignments is to draft an explanation
for my clients.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy is
a modality that can be used with adults, teens and young children. It has been
extensively researched and shown to reduce symptoms associated with most kinds
of traumas and generally disturbing events and emotions. There are 8 phases
that will take place as the client is ready for them.
The treatment will use one or more of the following
types of Bilateral/Dual Attention Processing stimulation (BLS). This keeps the
client and therapist in the past and the present at the same time: Each client
can choose what they prefer: Eye movement by following an object, hand buzzers,
tone through headphones, tapping by the therapist or self-tapping.
EMDR Therapy does not erase memories, it merely takes
the emotional connection away from an event so that a person can recall and
discuss the events without distress or disturbance. Research has also shown
that the brain continues to re-process even after the session and well into the
future. Clients may experience dreams, flashbacks, emotions and other
sensations following the treatments especially after the trauma work begins.
This is normal as it shows that your nervous system is doing its work.
Many of you may have heard that in June 2019 the
creator of EMDR, Francine Shapiro, passed away at the age of 71. She discovered
the properties of her theory quite by accident, as many good ideas come along,
and being open to something that the Universe was trying to tell her. As a
graduate student in Psychology, she followed up with good old-fashioned inquiry
and research and started nothing short of a revolution. People with long term
traumatic symptoms – war veterans, crime victims, people with chronic pain got
relief! Even after years of traditional therapies, within a few sessions, they
were able to think about or talk about their traumas without feeling as though
it was happening all over again. Like I said: Magic.
Ok, magic and science. One image that came up in my
mind when watching my first demonstration on Day One was the idea of hypnosis.
In the movies, we always see some Victorian doctor in a gray suit with a curly
mustache swing a big, gold, pocket watch in front of someone’s face until they
become sleepy. In this state, the doctor is able to access memories, or implant
some suggestion that later comes out unknowingly as a behavior the doctor
wanted the patient to complete. Okay, that is pretty creepy and not what the
purpose of any legitimate therapy is. But the bilateral stimulation has
definitely been known for a while as a powerful method for brain stimulation. Plenty
of new science on the brain is out there and practitioners, writers,
researchers are clamoring to have the next breakthrough: like plugging our
heads into a screen and making images appear. I’m not so sure that is a world I
am interested in, as my reality, anyway. I’ll take it as science fiction
instead.
I am a convert now. I don’t hear all the stories as
much in sessions. I find myself taking deep breaths with my clients, nodding, and
saying “go with that,” a lot while observing waves of emotion in my clients
through their tears, twitches and relaxation responses. They end their sessions
looking like they just came out of a nice dream, stretching and smiling, yet
they were fully awake in the room the whole time. I tried it while in training,
as we have to do on one another, and discovered that a number of things that
used to get me going on an angry rant are no longer bothering me. It is a very
peaceful feeling, to be able to let it go. I have studied for 25 years to do
play therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Solution Focused Therapy, art
therapy, and this is becoming my go-to and I don’t have to give up any of the
above! I hope to keep going to get certified, which will take a couple years to
do, so until then I will keep practicing, training, and consulting. Advice? Interested therapists should find an EMDRIA approved training, and don't cheap out on this one. There is too much to learn in what might look like a bargain. Potential clients: always look up where your therapist got their training, just in case they did cheap out!