Trauma Recovery Services Talks EMDR Therapy
EMDR is a powerful healing therapy that helps people resolve PTSD, depression and anxiety. It is used to address mental health and substance use problems that negatively impact your health. EMDR is a widely recognized and evidenced-based treatment. Learn more at https://trsofaz.com
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Welcome back.
00:01 With a growing awareness about emotional trauma
00:04 and its long-term effects on health outcomes,
00:06 both for soldiers and everyday civilians,
00:09 a new treatment is making news for the dramatic ways
00:12 that it's been helping people face PTSD.
00:15 Jordana Saunders, CEO and EMDR therapist,
00:18 and Janice Talas-Denny, practice manager
00:21 from Trauma Recovery, are both here to tell us more.
00:25 Welcome.
00:26 Let's start with the basics.
00:28 What is EMDR?
00:29 What does that stand for and what is it?
00:31 It stands for Eye Movement Desensitization
00:34 and Reprocessing.
00:35 It's just a fancy way of saying that, you know,
00:38 it resolves trauma.
00:40 There's a process, there's eight phases,
00:43 and now they call it EMDR therapy.
00:45 So it's an evidence-based type of therapy
00:48 that is used, as you mentioned, for PTSD,
00:50 but also for depression, anxiety, car accidents.
00:54 I mean, the gamut of things
00:56 that can happen out in the world.
00:58 So can you explain how it works?
01:00 'Cause I know there are a few different methods.
01:01 I've actually tried this once,
01:03 and there was like a therapist,
01:05 kind of like I was looking back and forth
01:07 between her hands,
01:09 but I know sometimes people use like a little machine.
01:11 How does it actually go down?
01:13 Yeah, so you're describing a component of EMDR.
01:16 So one of the phases is called reprocessing,
01:19 and so we use bilateral stimulation.
01:22 And so, like you said, there's a variety of that.
01:25 There can be either where you're watching,
01:28 usually it's a light bar,
01:29 there's a light that goes across
01:30 and you watch it go back and forth,
01:32 or all of us are trained to use our fingers,
01:35 so there's mechanics.
01:36 That's what I had, right?
01:37 Yeah.
01:38 So what's happening in my brain
01:39 when I'm looking back and forth
01:40 following a therapist's fingers?
01:42 So what's happening is you're accessing that memory,
01:45 that state, that emotion,
01:46 whatever it was that got stored
01:48 at the time of that maladaptive event.
01:51 So whatever that trauma was.
01:53 And what we're doing is we're reprocessing it
01:56 because when that trauma occurs,
01:58 it gets trapped in that original state.
02:00 So if you were five years old and you got bit by a dog,
02:03 you may be 30 now and you're still afraid of dogs,
02:06 but the memory is stored in that five-year-old version.
02:09 So what we're doing is we're accessing it,
02:11 we're reprocessing it,
02:13 so we're giving it access to current day resources,
02:17 and we're also repairing to some degree what has occurred.
02:22 So we're making it a neutral situation
02:25 instead of a charged one,
02:27 where every time you see a dog, you're afraid.
02:29 Now you see a dog and you remember,
02:31 "I got bit by a dog,"
02:33 but it doesn't have that same charge.
02:35 You're not like, "I gotta get away."
02:37 But the bilateral stimulation,
02:39 that's what it's doing is it's bringing up that memory
02:41 in the part of the brain where it's stored,
02:43 it's stored intrinsically.
02:44 So it's stored with the memory,
02:46 the sensations and the feelings,
02:48 but it's not adaptive,
02:49 which means it doesn't have current day resources.
02:52 It can't just go back
02:53 and you can't go and say to your five-year-old self,
02:55 "Hey, I'm okay now."
02:57 - It's over.
02:58 That dog's not biting you
02:59 because when your mind relives it,
03:02 it still produces stress hormones in your body,
03:04 even though that might've happened when you were five,
03:07 which actually brings up a question that I have,
03:08 and maybe Janice, you can speak to this.
03:10 Does this EMDR have to be proximal to the event?
03:13 In other words, can I work on something that happened
03:16 at five, or does it have to be like,
03:18 you've gotta get there within a month
03:19 of some traumatic incident?
03:21 - No, no, absolutely.
03:22 You can work with something that happened from childhood,
03:25 a childhood trauma.
03:26 As we age, that length of time that passes,
03:31 it's going to probably take a little longer
03:34 for you to feel better,
03:37 to stop having that anxious feeling
03:39 when you had that trauma.
03:43 You feel that anxiety or afraid
03:45 or whatever feelings you have due to that trauma.
03:49 It's gonna take a little while longer to heal,
03:51 as opposed to a younger person.
03:54 We do treat teenagers, so a younger person
03:57 would benefit from EMDR a lot quicker
03:59 than, say, you and I would.
04:02 - That's great to know.
04:02 We only have one minute left.
04:04 What are some types of people and traumas
04:07 that might benefit from seeking out EMDR?
04:10 - The example we gave is a good one.
04:13 It's everyday things, car accidents, injuries.
04:18 Bullying is really common.
04:22 People experience that, and we know
04:24 that that is a pervasive event
04:26 that can lead you to stressors later in adulthood.
04:30 Sexual assault, sexual abuse, domestic violence,
04:35 anything that is PTSD-related, stress,
04:39 depression, anxiety, so all of it.
04:42 Sleep issues.
04:43 - Thank you so much, Jordana, Janice.
04:46 A lot to think about, and help is out there.
04:49 You can find it.
04:50 It's all around.
04:51 (silence)
04:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]