EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a powerful and relatively new form of psychotherapy that is challenging everything we believe or have assumed about emotions and the nature of change. Where once it was accepted that psychotherapy often took years, depending on the nature of the problem (and even then outcomes were less than wonderful), therapists and clients are finding that problems that were resistant to years of psychotherapy are being resolved in a very short amount of time. Sometimes, within a few sessions.

      Tom was a professional who freelanced, and was quite successful at what he did, but he was terrified of making a mistake in public and drawing attention to himself. As a result, he avoided eating in restaurants with his colleagues. During EMDR therapy Tom thought about this fear and noticed the thoughts, emotions and physical sensations he was having. The therapist began to move her hand from side to side in a horizontal direction and asked Tom to follow with his eyes and simply notice what was “coming up”, and to report this whenever the therapist stopped. Without conversation, the therapist began moving her hand, and again Tom followed with his eyes and reported what he noticed. The session continued like this for 60 to 90 minutes until Tom was experiencing only positive feelings and thoughts. At the next week’s session he reported that he had had lunch out with his co-workers every day and only experienced the slightest anxiety.

      Ellen entered therapy complaining of lifelong depression. As a child she was abused emotionally, physically and verbally. Her mother was so incredibly sadistic that it was difficult to listen to her stories. If Ellen had been in traditional psychotherapy it may have taken ten or more years to make significant progress. When she began EMDR she began to notice differences in her self-esteem, behavior and outlook  after only two sessions. Ellen worked through many of her worst traumatic memories and ten months later she felt she was ready to stop therapy. She felt and acted like a new person.

      So what is EMDR, how was it developed and how does it work? In 1987, psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro was walking through the park and thinking about something that was troubling her. She accidentally noticed that her eyes were darting back and forth. When she returned to her thoughts she noticed that they weren’t as disturbing. This intrigued her and she tested it out on herself by thinking of something disturbing, then thinking of it again while purposely moving her eyes back and forth. The results were the same.

      Dr. Shapiro began testing this scientifically, first with war veterans suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Some of these men had been in traditional therapy for 15 to 20 years and yet they continued to have nightmares and flashbacks that felt as if they were reliving the horrors of war. PTSD had completely incapacitated some of these men, but when they received EMDR treatment, many found that years of PTSD symptoms disappeared within a few sessions. These incredible results were repeated when EMDR was tested with rape victims and victims of other types of trauma. What is remarkable is that during her research, Shapiro found that not only does EMDR desensitize painful memories but people spontaneously began to view themselves and the event in a healthier and more positive way. So, “I’m worthless” became, “I’m a good and lovable person and deserving of love and respect”.

      Exactly how EMDR works is not really known. We do know from memory and brain research that painful or traumatic experiences are stored in a different part of the brain than pleasant or neutral ones. Normally, if we’re troubled by something, we think about it, talk about it, perhaps dream about it and eventually we are able to come to some sort of adaptive resolution (We find a way to come to terms with it in a healthy way, enabling us to put it behind us.) Something happens that interrupts this process when we experience a trauma or very painful event. Instead, the traumatic material gets *stuck* in the brain and remains in its original form, with the same thoughts, feelings, bodily sensation, smells and sounds. It’s as though it is sealed off from the healthy, functioning brain. That’s why it’s not uncommon for a person who’s had years of traditional talk therapy to find that they still hurt and haven’t changed as much as they had hoped. This is because the dysfunctionally stored material still has not been processed.

      What researchers think is that EMDR in some way is able to *nudge* that material so that it neurologically reconnects with the healthy brain and then is reprocessed and integrated at an accelerated speed. The most popular theory is that when the eyes move back and forth it creates brain activity similar to that which occurs during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. It’s during this REM phase (when we dream) that we resolve conflicts, process information and consolidate learning and memory. More simply put, information processing takes place. By creating similar brain activity, while thinking about the painful event, it appears that EMDR is able to help the brain finally process the *stuck* material, enabling the person to arrive at an adaptive resolution. The painful event or trauma becomes an unfortunate memory but is no longer produces the emotional pain that it did before.

      Since Dr. Shapiro took that walk through the park in 1987 and chanced upon this discovery, nearly 30,000 licensed therapists, throughout the world have taken the EMDR Institute’s training program. What’s wonderful is that over the past ten years many accomplished therapists have found that EMDR is helpful in treating many other problems besides PTSD. Some of these include other anxiety disorders, depression, sexual abuse issues, work related problems and low self- esteem. Furthermore, some EMDR therapists have found that EMDR can enhance the performance of athletes, performing artists and writers, to name a few.

It is important to understand that EMDR is not merely a technique using eye movements, but a complex, integrative method that utilizes a very precise protocol. Nor is it a “miracle cure” as some have been led to believe. Most long term problems are not cured in three sessions, however treatment is generally much shorter than traditional talk therapies, which is an advantage in the age of managed care. EMDR has changed the face of psychotherapy and continues to do so. As scientists learn more about the brain, using new and sophisticated methods such as brain imaging, we may gain a deeper understanding of how the brain and EMDR works.

Valerie A. Sheehan, CSW is a licensed psychotherapist,  EMDRIA Certified in EMDR  and a clinical hypnotherapist. She has a private practice in Huntington, NY.