emdr | Trauma-ties

EMDR combines different elements to maximize treatment effects. A full description of the theory, sequence of treatment, and research on protocols and active mechanisms. (references can be found in F. Shapiro (2001) Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (2nd edition) New York: Guilford Press.

EMDR therapy involves attention to three time periods: the past, present, and future. Focus is given to past disturbing memories and related events. Also, it is given to current situations that cause distress, as did the bills that had accumulated for our client Mary. This had caused much stress and assisted Mary in developing the skills and attitudes needed for positive future actions.

With EMDR therapy, these items are addressed using an eight-level treatment approach. The following are some of the treatment plans we used.

Level 1: The first phase is a history-taking session(s). Our team and our therapist assess the client’s readiness and develop a treatment plan. Client and therapist identify possible targets for EMDR processing.

These include distressing memories and current situations that cause emotional distress. Other targets may include related incidents in the past. Processing may be directed to childhood events.

Mary preferred to write all her incidents and e-mail them to us. Then, to adult-onset stressors or the identified critical incident if the client had a problematic childhood.

The length of treatment depends upon the number of traumas and the age of PTSD onset. Generally, those with single event adult onset trauma can be successfully treated in under 5 hours. Multiple trauma victims may require a longer treatment time.

Level 2: During the second phase of treatment, together, our team and our therapist ensure that the client has several different ways of handling emotional distress. We are all aware of our therapist teaching Mary a variety of imagery and stress reduction techniques that Mary could use to maintain equilibrium during and between sessions.

Sometimes, we would get messages on the main phone line when Mary was going through something. Someone in our team would get a hold of Mary. Sometimes she just wanted to live us a message.

Levels 3-6: In phases three to six, we would identify and processed using EMDR therapy procedures. These involve our client identifying three things:

The vivid visual image related to the memory
A negative belief about self.
Related emotions and body sensations.

In addition, Mary could identify, a positive belief. Our team would help Mary rate the positive belief as well as the intensity of the negative emotions. We would also let Mary how proud we were of her.

Depending upon Mary’s report, our team would choose the next focus of attention and Mary would be involved of course. These repeated sets with directed focus and attention occurred numerous times throughout our sessions.

If Mary became distressed or had difficulty in progressing, our therapist would follow established procedures to help Mary get back on track.

When Mary reported no distress related to the targeted memory, she was asked to think of the preferred positive belief that was identified at the beginning of the session. At this time, Mary would adjust the positive belief, if necessary, and then focus on it during the next set of distressing events. Sometimes, Mary would report having difficultly focusing but stated once she used the breathing techniques, she was better or just leave us an e-mail. Mary was very active in reporting her day or emotions on the computer, sometimes, they were very lengthy.

Level 7: In phase seven, closure, the therapist asks the client to keep a log during the week. The log should document any related material that may arise. It serves to remind the client of the self-calming activities that were mastered in phase two. Mary later admitted to actually enjoyed letting us know, by writing a whole lengthy report.

Level 8: The next session begins with phase eight. Phase eight consists of examining the progress made thus far. Our whole team would meet with Mary, or we would talk about her successes in our daily meetings. knowing how positive the process was.

The EMDR treatment processes all related historical events, current incidents that elicit distress, and future events that will require different responses. That is, Mary should be able to get better results and be healed in less time. Mary would have to continue to be seen as long as she wanted. Mary started a job and using her specialty in creating websites. Mary was very successful in working for a company that is aware of her challenges and call us if there would be a concern.

All of this amazing process was discovered by the following amazing lady, Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., This amazing discoverer is the originator and developer of EMDR.

For more information, visit: https://www.emdr.com/

This is another discovery that I had forgotten about until I ran into a friend with whom I used to work at a mental health clinic. I asked him about how work was going and then I remembered he had taken this process course for his work as a Mental Health Professional (MHP).

He said he took some time off to finish getting his certification. I asked if this process really worked. YES! And it takes less time to heal. It takes maybe 3 to 6 months, depending on the client, he may be healed in 12 to 26 sessions.

This may take a lot less time, instead of years. The Client needs to be ready to do what is asked of him or her. Easy and almost painless.

I was chosen to be part of this mental health team and partner up with my friend. This was before we became friends. This was how I met my new friend.

As a team, we were assigned to work with a client who had lost her partner to cancer. A very educated lady, who had taken her sick leave and all her vacation to be with her partner, but later had to leave her position to support her partner until the partner’s death. ]

This devastated Mary, our client.

As trauma does, it leaves you in shambles and it changes the cells and nervous system, affects the brain cells, and basically the body as a whole.

My friend and all those involved with her treatment plan, including our client, Mary, started the process of healing her. Utilizing EMDR treatment.

The reprocessing involves “reflecting on specific experiences of past trauma in your life. It is a form of therapy that helps people like Mary to heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences, during her lifetime.

These are the experiences causing you the most stress, grief, or other emotional reaction. This formal process takes time and requires the services of a trained therapist, and certified specifically for the EMDR therapy program treatment. Most people gain remarkable, life-changing success in 12 to 20 sessions.

Mary was mainly interested in finding a job to pay some of her basic bills, which started to pile up. This was causing her more non-relieving stress. Mary wanted a job.

It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. However, EMDR therapy, shows that the mind can in fact be healed from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. We used the EMDR to re-wire the healing process to give Mary the focus needed for a job.

Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference.

EMDR therapy helps children and adults of all ages. My friend said, the therapists use EMDR with a wide range of challenges, including, but not limited to, sexual assault, pain, panic attacks, violence, abuse and anxiety, and PTSD.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories (Shapiro, 1989a, 1989b). Shapiro’s (2001) Adaptive Information Processing model, EMDR therapy facilitates the accessing and processing of traumatic memories and other adverse life experiences to bring these to an adaptive resolution.

After successful treatment with EMDR therapy, affective distress is relieved. Negative beliefs are reformulated, and physiological arousal is reduced.

This is so amazing for the sufferer. Mary started showing some positive results. Her treatment plan would have to be changed, as some of her skills started coming back to her.

During EMDR therapy Mary paid attention to emotionally disturbing material in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus. For example, talking to people about her working skills. Mary was good in using computer technology and knowledge of her feelings, to express herself upon reporting using technics learned, texting, and/or e-mailing her feelings and experiences of some of the positive results that she had received by EMDR therapy.

Her therapist (my friend), directed lateral eye movements in the most commonly used external stimulus, and a variety of other stimuli including hand-tapping and audio stimulation are often used.

Our team and our EMDR therapist met to facilitate and access the traumatic memory network, so that information processing is enhanced, with new associations forged between the traumatic memory and more adaptive memories or information. This was to check if Mary would be able to safely excess her information.

These new associations are thought to result in complete information processing, new learning, elimination of emotional distress, and development of cognitive insights.

EMDR therapy uses a three-pronged protocol: (1) the past events that have laid the groundwork for dysfunction are processed, forging new associative links with adaptive information.

(2) the current circumstances that elicit distress are targeted, and internal and external triggers are desensitized. This part of the process was successful with Mary with some assistance of some help from our other teams.

(3) imaginal templates of future events are incorporated, to assist our client in acquiring the skills needed for adaptive functioning. Mary was required to make reports, and send us information on her feelings, and some other parts of the process by using tools our therapist suggested, without speaking in detail or doing homework used with other therapies.

Which, as I understand it, EMDR has been so well researched, that it is now recommended as an effective treatment for trauma.

In the Practice Guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association, and those of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Dr. Shapiro is a Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, Executive Director of the EMDR Institute in Watsonville, CA, and founder and President Emeritus of the non-profit organization that coordinates disaster response and low fee training worldwide.

We are so fortunate, to have these healers in our midst. You may find some of these EMDR therapists in most of the local Mental Health, or Behavioral Health clinical facilities.

We could use this discovery by Francine Shapiro Ph.D. I understand it has been around since 1988.

For more information, visit: https://www.emdr.com/

I hope this is helpful, information. Many Blessings to all.