Home | Education | Psychology
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing is a rather long and complex title for a therapeutic tool that is new and can be quickly learned and is easy to put into practice. It was discovered by Francine Shapiro in 1987 in the USA. This technique has since become recognised and is used in trauma centres in many places, with much documented research attesting to its effectiveness. This is what happens in an EMDR session The client describes the traumatic memory and is helped to focus on the very worst aspect and the associated feelings and then describes the negative belief they may have internalized as a result. For example, if a man had been involved in a road traffic accident and felt that he hadn't been careful enough, the thought might be "I'm so stupid.' Then the therapist helps the client formulate the belief he'd really like to have, which could be 'I do the best I can to keep myself safe.' The thoughts and feelings are rated on scales of 1-10. Holding firm to the memory, keeping the negative feelings and thoughts in the mind, the client focuses on the practitioner's hand as she waves it around close to his face in a series of movements, then the practitioner pauses. Whatever the client is thinking is spoken about, as well as his feelings and anything in his body. Then the therapist starts the hand movements again. This is repeated as often as necessary until nothing new is being observed or felt. Now it is time to return to the original thoughts and feelings and give them a rating again. Now an objective measure of change can be observed. How does it work? It appears that the brain is unable to process trauma memories in the normal way. They get stuck in the limbic system where they can be easily triggered. Duel brain stimulation seems to aid these memories shift to the cerebral cortex where normal memories are stored. In this way they lose their emotional charge. Clients who have received this form of treatment state that the memory has not gone away but the unpleasant or frightening feelings that came with it have gone, and they feel a lot better with themselves. Eye movements are the usual way of doing EMDR, but other bilateral stimulation methods can be used, such as tapping alternate hands or knees, or listening to sounds through headphones. It is also very effective with the kinds of core beliefs and patterns that no amount of talking therapy can shift. For simple traumas like the road traffic accident example, the feelings can be processed in about 6 sessions. Traumas that are more complicated are treated better with an ongoing client/therapist relationship.
Article Source: http://www.just-article.com
Su Fox is a knowledgeable British psychotherapist and counsellor who can be contacted at london psychotherapy or london counselling. She is also writer of a book for holistic therapists: Relating To Clients.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
