The acronym EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. EMDR was invented in the late 1980s by American psychologist Francine Shapiro. Thus, EMDR is a relatively new method in trauma therapy. The effectiveness of EMDR in trauma therapy has been scientifically confirmed.
What happens during EMDR?
During EMDR therapy, the patient is asked to recall memories of the trauma under the guidance of the psychotherapist. To do this, he or she follows the therapist’s fingers with his or her eyes as he or she moves them quickly and rhythmically to the left and right. EMDR should only be performed as part of a more comprehensive trauma therapy by a properly trained clinician or psychologist.
Purpose of EMDR therapy
We store normal experiences in memory by sorting them and linking them to previous content. Trauma, on the other hand, is probably not sorted in a normal way, but is stored separately along with all the sensory impressions and thoughts that belong to it. Later, anything that reminds the person of the trauma – a loud bang, a smell, a touch – can cause the person to feel that he or she is reliving the situation. Fear, helplessness, and physical reactions such as shortness of breath and racing heart are the result. The goal of EMDR therapy is therefore to sort the memory of the trauma into the memory like a normal memory. Affected persons should no longer feel defenselessly transported back into the situation, but should be able to perceive and endure the memories normally following trauma therapy.
EMDR: effect of the method
Trauma therapy with EMDR is said to use three mechanisms to make the person no longer experience the memories of the trauma as threatening:
- In EMDR, memories of the trauma are repeatedly brought up in the safe environment of therapy, thus linking them to a sense of relative safety. In this way, the sufferer learns that the memories are not threatening. This is because the memory links together everything that frequently occurs in pairs. Similar to fear of heights or fear of flying, the fear becomes less and less the more often it is faced.
- Researchers believe that memories are sorted and stored in long-term memory during dreams. The rapid eye movements during EMDR therapy are thought to simulate the eye movements we make when we dream. EMDR is thus thought to stimulate memory processes and enable faster healing via trauma therapy.
- The rhythmic stimulation provided by the eye movements is also said to make it easier for the patient to relax and couple the threatening memories to neutral stimuli. Therefore, some therapists additionally use bilateral touching on the arms.
Does EMDR help sufferers?
Scientific research on many patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has shown that EMDR therapy achieves as good effects as other psychotherapeutic methods of trauma therapy. These include simple exposure therapy, a standard procedure in behavioral therapy. Similar to the EMDR method, the patient recalls the trauma in a controlled manner with the support of the therapist – but without any particular eye movements. Because EMDR does not perform better than simple exposure treatment in comparative studies, it is questionable whether eye movements actually have an effect on treatment outcome.
What do you need to be aware of with EMDR?
Before beginning EMDR therapy, the therapist should assess whether the individual is suitable for EMDR therapy. The patient should practice stabilization techniques beforehand. These provide a sense of safety and control during the intense and anxiety-provoking memories of the trauma. EMDR therapy has been recognized by the Scientific Advisory Board for Psychotherapy as an effective method of trauma therapy for adults since 2006. Although this means that the legal requirements are met, the costs of EMDR treatment are currently (as of the end of 2010) not reimbursed by the statutory health insurance funds.
