EMDR was defined as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing technique at the end of the 1980s. In later years, it was also referred to as reprocessing therapy. One of the biggest reasons for the name change is that EMDR is a therapy method that can work not only with eye movements but also with tactile or auditory stimuli.
The main purpose of EMDR is to free the person from the negative experiences of his/her past and to enable him/her to continue his/her life with a more positive perspective and self-confidence. Even though EMDR is mostly used on people who have experienced trauma; it is widely used in the treatment of test anxiety, failure or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) .
When the person turns the traumatic event into a photo frame, EMDR works on that photo frame. That photo frame becomes a fuzzier, more colorless, more dull, more faded photo frame over time. Thus, the negative experience of the person's past is removed from the format that will affect his/her present, behavior, thoughts, mood or communication, and that will suddenly come to his/her mind and lower his/her mood.
The application of EMDR is in sessions of 90 minutes on average and consists of an 8-stage protocol. This 8-stage protocol is shaped and structured according to the person and the negativities experienced by the person. Almost everyone has traumas called "Big T" or "Little T" in their lives. The so-called "Big T" traumas include events such as earthquakes, accidents or natural disasters that may result in deaths. Traumas called "small t", on the other hand, include failing at school or behaviors and negative experiences that will negatively affect stage performance.
Exam Anxiety in Adolescents and EMDR
Adolescence is a period of great complexity. The difficulty of this period is that both the adolescent goes through great changes, and both the mother and the father have new experiences to adapt to their child and try to adapt to different periods. Children in adolescence show physical, emotional and cognitive changes.
Adolescence is also a period of increased expectations. In children in this period, a sense of competition begins to develop. At the same time, the exams prepared for children to compete with each other in the education system trigger these feelings and cause even more difficulties for children who are already in a difficult process.
Children have difficulty in adapting to this sense of responsibility and competition, and this disharmony can sometimes manifest itself as anxiety disorders. In this process, using the EMDR method, we start to specifically work on anxiety in children and anxiety for the exam period.
How Does EMDR Work?
The negative memories we have experienced in the past can be a big problem because our mind cannot encode and process them. These uncoded memories or bad experiences are stored both in our mind and in our body. Thanks to EMDR, we can work on this storage and try to neutralize the negative emotions it creates in us. Thanks to this method, very good results can be obtained. Negative emotions encountered in daily life cause us great stimuli and cause us to be unable to fulfill our daily functions.
Working withEMDR in children and adolescents yields very useful results. EMDR is a widely used method to achieve fast and permanent solutions in periods with a certain limit and a certain history. One of the main long-term advantages of EMDR for children and adolescents is that they learn from their past experiences.
They also gain desensitization skills against the stimuli that cause them to experience stress in their lives. As a result, their negative experiences cannot affect their daily lives. It is also said that there is an increase in their ability to communicate in their individual and interpersonal relationships.
EMDR aims to work with the disturbing negative memory. However, it is possible to work not only in the past, but also in the present and the future. It is possible to reduce the child's anxiety about the exam by working with the protocol for exam anxiety. This 8-step protocol may vary according to the anxiety and negative beliefs about oneself. However, the most important technique to remember when working with EMDR and test anxiety; it is very important not only to work with the past memory, but also to work with the future anxiety protocol to prepare the child for the exam in the future.
Traumas and EMDR Therapy in Children
Trauma in children can take two different forms. These two different forms can be seen not only in children but also in adults. While traumas can be seen in life-threatening situations such as earthquakes, accidents and kidnappings with the risk of death as a result, children can also be exposed to trauma in situations such as being ridiculed, ignored and humiliated in social environments.
Symptoms of trauma in children vary according to age and cognitive stage. In small groups, traumas such as regression, which we call babyish behaviors, finger sucking, wetting, not sleeping alone and babyish backwardness in speech can be seen. As they grow older, they may again become withdrawn, withdraw from social environments, become isolated, communicate less, gain weight or lose weight severely, and have nighttime bedwetting behaviors. These traumas can be divided into emotional trauma, sexual trauma and physical trauma. Their effects on children and adolescents may vary depending on the type, severity and frequency of the trauma they are exposed to.
If the child has been systematically exposed to trauma more than once, the symptoms are more prolonged, more severe and more intense. If trauma in children is left untreated, the consequences can be more severe.
Symptoms that present with milder symptoms can become more persistent, longer lasting, deeper and more difficult to treat. Therefore, the moment you feel that your child has been exposed to trauma, the moment you learn about it, or if you observe a change in their behavior, if you have any doubts, please seek support from a specialist. Because the longer it is delayed, the more likely it is that the child will isolate himself/herself, withdraw from social environments and label himself/herself, leading to a decrease in self-worth and self-esteem.
While EMDR was initially a trauma-focused field, as a result of new studies and research, it has become one of the newest therapy techniques used in more than one area because it contributes to children's ability to develop a sense of self, to see the outside world and other people more positively, and to develop coping skills and coping strategies.
When using EMDR, it is possible to work not only on the trauma suffered, but also on the child's negative beliefs, if any, about himself/herself, so it is possible to work on both the worst memory and all the traumatic memories that the child has developed about that negative memory and belief from the past to the present. This leads to a more permanent state of well-being. For this reason, EMDR is a very important method to use as it progresses in a shorter period of time, as a solution it offers, and because it provides a positive self-perception to other people and the outside world.
