EMDR therapy is a mental health treatment that uses eye movements to reprocess the trauma at the root of harmful mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, addiction, and mood swings.
What does EMDR stand for? EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.
EMDR therapy is a way to remove a mental blockage (a memory of a traumatic life experience). Once the blockage is removed, the negative behaviors and avoidance strategies that someone has created because of the traumatic experience should dissipate.
As with all types of therapy and mental health treatment, it’s key that the patient approach treatment with an open mind. The patient needs to go into their sessions, whether self-administered or overseen by a therapist, with a willingness to tackle issues that have lain dormant for years.
Contents
- EMDR Resources
- How does EMDR work?
- Why does EMDR work?
- Who is EMDR for?
- Does EMDR therapy work?
- What conditions does EMDR work for?
- EMDR therapy side effects
- How to mitigate EMDR side effects?
- EMDR FAQs: What to Know About EMDR
- What is the EMDR success rate?
- Is EMDR therapy expensive?
- What is bilateral stimulation?
- How quickly does EMDR therapy work?
- What is the ripple effect?
- How long is an EMDR session?
- Do I have to share a lot in EMDR therapy?
- Is EMDR safe?
- What is the SUDs scale?
- What is the VOC scale in EMDR therapy?
- Author
EMDR Resources
Learn more about all the ways in which you can receive EMDR therapy below.
Self-administer EMDR:
– Read up on our guide on how to self-administer EMDR therapy
or
– Here are 3 simple EMDR exercises to try, or you can check out self-guided tools like VirtualEMDR
EMDR with a therapist:
– In-person: Check out in-person therapist options
or
– Online: Read up on our in-depth BetterHelp review
How does EMDR work?
EMDR therapy uses eye movements and bilateral stimulation to help patients reprocess traumatic or negative memories.
The goal of EMDR is to access traumatic memories and reprocess them until they’re no longer harmful. Reprocessing is a big, clinical-sounding term, but in practice it involves accessing the memory and then using eye movements or other types of stimulation to form new associations and connections with the traumatic memory. In essence, EMDR removes existing negative associations with the memory so the patient is able to access the memory without a negative response.
EMDR is an eight phase treatment that can be broken down into three key components: Preparation, Reprocessing, and Post-Treatment Assessment.
Stage 1: Preparation
During phase 1 and 2 (client history, preparation), the therapist goes over the client’s history to identify the traumatic memory or memories at the core of mental health difficulties.
Stage 2: Memory reprocessing
Phases 3-6 (assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan) comprise the bulk of the work. During this stage, bilateral stimulation used to change the client’s relationship and reaction to the traumatic memory.
Stage 3: Post-treatment assessment
During phase 7-8 (closure, re-evaluation), the client and therapist close off the memory they’ve been dealing with and re-evaluate the mental health of the patient to identify any other memories that need addressing.
For an in-depth breakdown of each of the eight phases, check out our explanation of the eight phases of EMDR.
Why does EMDR work?
While an individual may be genetically predisposed to being anxious or depressed, there is almost always an event or series of events at the core of why they suffer from acute episodes of anxiety or depression.
EMDR uses the self-healing ability of the brain, accessed through bilateral stimulation, to reprocess traumatic memories by accessing the memory and reforging the neural connections associated with that memory until the client is able to access the memory in a healthy, non-reactive way.
Who is EMDR for?
EMDR is for anyone with traumatic memories that affect their present-day mental health.
Think of an unresolved trauma like a splinter in the mind. If it remains untouched and undealt with, it will cause problems. A splinter causes swelling, pain, and irritation. Trauma causes anxiety, depression, dissociation and other mental conditions that will negatively impact a person’s life.
EMDR was originally tested on people suffering PTSD and proved to be remarkably effective in treating the condition. Over the past twenty five years, EMDR has been used to identify and reprocess the everyday memories that are the cause of so many mental health conditions.
Does EMDR therapy work?
EMDR has been proven to be effective, safe, and quicker-acting than many other treatment types. Dozens of clinical trials have put EMDR to the test in a controlled environment, and the results have shown EMDR’s effectiveness.
One study showed that nearly 90% of single-trauma PTSD sufferers healed their PTSD after just three sessions of 90 minutes each. Those suffering from multiple traumas will need to tackle each in separate sets of sessions. EMDR has proven remarkably effective for multiple traumas, with 77% of patients no longer meeting the clinical definition of PTSD after six sessions.
What conditions does EMDR work for?
EMDR is useful for the following conditions:
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- Anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma-based disorders like PTSD
- Personality disorders like Borderline Personality Disorder
- Dissociative disorders
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
EMDR therapy side effects
EMDR does not cause any lasting side effects. At worst, an EMDR session can cause a few temporary side effects. Common ones include:
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- Vivid dreams
- Physical discomfort while reprocessing traumatic memories
- Intense emotions
- Headaches
- Dissociation
Typically, these side effects are temporary aftereffects of intense sessions that will subside shortly after the therapy session. There are several things someone can do to mitigate the potential for side effects.
How to mitigate EMDR side effects?
The best way to mitigate any mental EMDR side effects is to make sure that you’re fully bought into the session. As mentioned above, EMDR works best if the patient is
The best way to mitigate physical side effects is to stay hydrated, properly rested, and eat well.
80 percent of mental health is physical health, so make sure you’re taking care of yourself before, during, and especially after your EMDR sessions.
EMDR FAQs: What to Know About EMDR
What is the EMDR success rate?
EMDR patients typically experience an 80-90% success rate after 3 sessions. Most studies have focused on EMDR patients undergoing treatment for single-incident trauma-induced PTSD.
EMDR’s success rate depends on the number of traumas and the relative complexity of each trauma that needs to be addressed.
Is EMDR therapy expensive?
An in-person EMDR session typically costs between $100-150. Check out our resources on EMDR-certified therapists.
Self-administered EMDR using resources like VirtualEMDR is much cheaper, running as low as $49/month. For an in-depth look at what VirtualEMDR offers, check out our VirtualEMDR review. If you think it’s for you, go ahead and try VirtualEMDR for free.
In general, EMDR is much cheaper than traditional talk therapy because of how much more quickly the therapy tends to work and lower average cost per session.
There are multiple options for EMDR therapy, each with a different cost. Self-administered EMDR tends to cost less, while in-person, therapist-administered sessions are typically the most expensive option.
What is bilateral stimulation?
Bilateral stimulation refers to alternating between stimulating the left and right side of the brain. Eye movements like following a finger without turning the head, auditory cues like beeping, and physical sensations like tapping can all be used to conduct bilateral stimulation.
Bilateral stimulation has been shown to offer the following benefits:
Activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Activating the parasympathetic nervous system puts the body into rest and digest mode, shifting the patient from the fight or flight, panicked state that often accompanies revisiting the traumatic memory at the heart of their issues. Once the parasympathetic nervous system is active, it makes dealing with the memory easier.
Increases levels of happy neurochemicals. We are, to a certain extent, at the mercy of our biology. Low levels of happy chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, coupled with high levels of stress hormones like cortisol, make it more difficult (not impossible) to achieve a stable, high-functioning emotional state. Bilateral stimulation can boost the levels of happy neurotransmitters in the brain, reducing the stress response and making it more likely for the patient to forge new neural pathways in the brain.
Disrupts usual negative thought loops. Our brains love patterns. Neurons that fire together wire together is a saying for a reason. When a traumatic memory comes up, the brain will launch into the same behavior that it has done in the past. Bilateral stimulation acts as a track switcher. The train still leaves the station, but instead of going down the same set of tracks it’s always gone down, bilateral stimulation hits the switch and sets it in a different, healthier, direction.
How quickly does EMDR therapy work?
On average, simple traumas take 3 sessions to heal. More complicated traumas can take 6 or more sessions for EMDR to work, and multiple traumas will take more time to work through because each traumatic memory is typically dealt with during separate sessions. However, one of the reasons why EMDR is so effective is because of the ripple effect.
What is the ripple effect?
The ripple effect refers to the phenomenon of healing one trauma leading to healing other traumas in the same class. For example, you work on reprocessing an incident of bullying can lead to the brain automatically reprocessing other memories of bullying.
The brain’s ability to tap into the ripple effect can make EMDR particularly effective.
How long is an EMDR session?
An average EMDR therapy session lasts from 60-90 minutes. Session duration will typically depend on what your therapist recommends.
Self-administered EMDR sessions tend to be shorter, but, being self-administered, they can run as short or as long as you’d like.
EMDR is not talk therapy, and there is much less personal sharing needed from the patient. Instead of discussing the specifics of a trauma, it’s enough for the patient to identify the traumatic event, how it made them feel, and current behaviors they’d like to change.
Read up on a complete comparison between traditional talk therapy and EMDR.
Is EMDR safe?
EMDR is a best practice treatment for PTSD according to the DVA (Department for Veteran Affairs). The World Health Organization (WHO), along with a host of other top government health organizations across the US and Western Europe, lists it as an approved mental health treatment. Dozens of clinical trials and research papers have shown EMDR to be an effective and safe mental health treatment for a wide range of mental health conditions.
What is the SUDs scale?
The SUDs scale is the Subjective Units of Distress scale, a fancy term for a tool psychologists and psychiatrists use to measure a patient’s level of distress. The SUDs scale measures distress from 0, no distress, to 10, extreme distress.
What is the VOC scale in EMDR therapy?
VOC stands for validity of cognition. In EMDR therapy the VOC scale measures how deeply a person believes a given positive statement. Part of EMDR involves providing the client with new, positive statements to help rewire their self-talk. As therapy progresses, the idea is to replace negative statements with positive ones. Of course, for this to work, the client needs to legitimately believe the positive statements.
The VOC scale, which measures from 1 (I think the statement is completely false) to 7 (I think the statement is completely true) is a way to quantify progress toward true belief.
