EMDR therapy is one of the most effective therapy methods implemented for trauma. EMDR is a type of therapy named after the initials of the words "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing". This type of therapy appears as a method that aims to make sense of distressing situations and memories that have been experienced and remain under their influence, to get out of their effect, and to achieve relief.
EMDR is a technique that can be translated into Turkish as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. During this therapy, information pertaining to memories embedded in the human mind is reprocessed. It is a type of psychotherapy that states that the cause of the disorder in clients is memories and recollections stored as negative and bad, and that modifies these negative memories under the guidance of the adaptive information processing model in treatment.
The core thought here is this: at the root of all psychological problems that people experience in their daily lives lie negative memories and traumas they experienced in the past. The reflections of these traumatic experiences on a person's daily life can affect his entire life.
What is EMDR and How Is It Applied?
At the root of psychological events such as depression, panic attacks, phobias, mood disorders, obsessive thoughts, social relations with people, anger outbursts, sexual dysfunctions, and eating disorders lie these psychological, traumatic experiences originating from the past. EMDR is used very intensively in eliminating traumas during this process.
How Does EMDR Therapy Work?
It was discovered by Dr. Shapiro in the 1980s. It is a method whose systematic application dates back to the 1990s. During the 1999 Izmit-Adapazari Earthquake process, it was widely applied in our country and, as a result of providing a positive effect, it began to be applied intensively all over Turkey.
EMDR technique is a method applied as the simultaneous stimulation of both sides of the brain. Its application is quite simple; it is a method applied by the client and the expert sitting opposite each other. This method is based on the processing of negative experiences and events that create a trauma effect that his brain has lived through from the past to the present. In fact, our brain can perform this process automatically during sleep. Especially in the area where dreams are seen, which we call REM sleep, in the sleep phase where we can observe eye movements moving rapidly right and left, our brain processes whatever events we experience in our daily life and throws them into the area we can call the memory pool.
The important part is the processing of experiences that create a negative effect. Here, the brain again automatically processes negative experiences and neutralizes them. The most fundamental and indispensable movement in EMDR is eye movements. Following the establishment of the therapist-client relationship, targeted memories are reached, and a dual-sided stimulator is applied to the client. These stimulators can take the form of eye movement, providing auditory stimuli to both ears, or dual-directional tactile stimuli. These stimulators are the actual technique of this therapy and affect the outcome.
The purpose of all these is to eliminate the property of this negative experience of negatively affecting our daily life. The fundamental effect here is not the forgetting or having the traumas we experienced in the past forgotten, but their transformation into a form that will no longer negatively affect him in daily life.
In Which Situations Is EMDR Therapy Performed?
Even though EMDR therapy is fundamentally performed for situations of severe fear and anxiety, it is a therapy method used today in the treatment of many psychiatric problems. While neutralizing negative memories in our daily life, the brain may have difficulty neutralizing severe traumas experienced in the past.
For instance; it could be the loss of an artist we love very much, an earthquake, or it may be difficult to neutralize the negativity of severe traumatic events such as harassment and rape. Just as it becomes difficult for our stomach to digest a very heavy meal when we eat one, our brain may also experience difficulty in the function of neutralizing and rendering ineffective very severe traumas. The trauma may not be very severe, but we may also have traumatic experiences that we have been exposed to for a very long time, perhaps for years.
The brain has difficulty processing negative effects created by traumatic experience, exclusion, lovelessness, mobbing, emotional burdens, and certain situations related to relationships. The EMDR technique is utilized to completely eliminate these negative effects. Thus, the negative effects created by these traumas do not systematically affect the person's life negatively.
How Is EMDR Therapy Performed?
First of all, the person performing EMDR therapy must establish the relationship between the therapist and the client very well. How long this therapy will continue is determined by the mental state of the sick person, the presence of a different accompanying psychiatric disorder, the complexity of the trauma experienced, and the psycho-social support systems of the sick person. In this therapy, problems can sometimes be resolved in a single session, but processing of emotions and thoughts can be ensured in 3 sessions as recommended. In some cases, it can take 8-10 sessions in complex traumas.
The application is a method applied by simultaneously stimulating the right and left lobes of the brain with bilateral stimuli. This method allows individuals to be taken to existing traumas and for the said traumas to be processed one by one with a technique called imagination.
This processing duration varies from person to person. Sometimes it can be concluded in 2-3 sessions, but as the number of traumas increases, the duration of the session may vary. The person's personality is also effective on the duration. At the end of the duration, with the complete removal of negative effects from the person's life, he experiences a great relief in his daily life and his quality of life increases.
Consequently, the method called EMDR is a technique, a method that works through traumas and creates extremely effective, extremely radical changes on the problems individuals experience in their daily lives. This method is also used intensively in therapies.