Expecto Desensitizo! What to Expect from the “Magic” of EMDR
EMDR is likely something you’ve seen on TV, posted in your social feed, or raved about by that one lady at that one grocery store. It stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, hence the EMDR acronym (which is far less of a tongueful). If you’re curious about what it entails, why there’s such buzz around it, and how people claim it has “magical” properties, here are some things to note before trying it on yourself.
It is very similar to conventional therapy but there’s less “talking.” Simply put, whereas in most conventional therapies clients says something and the therapist responds either empathically or via communicating understanding, EMDR is drawing on you and your own memory. Trauma often gets “stuck” in our nervous systems and through EMDR’s “magics” the trauma can get unstuck.
How does the “magics” work? Simply put, we as therapists cast a “bilateral stimulus” spell (Expect Desensitizo!) to enable you to access what has been stuck. There are multiple ways to do this; most famously, it involves following a therapist’s fingers to and fro from one side to another, simulating something similar to REM sleep. However, it can also include tapping, buzzing, listening to sounds, etc. but the most important component is that one side of your “mind” does something, such as your left hand tapping, followed rapidly by the other side doing something, such as the right hand tapping, in very quick succession.
The “magics” isn’t done right away. As is true of all good therapy, rapport and a strong therapeutic alliance is needed. Simply put, your got to like and trust your therapist otherwise the “spell” has no chance of working.
Another form of “magic” cast in EMDR is its own form of “patronus charm.” For a quick Potter refresher, the patronus charm worked as a spell cast when a wizard was surrounded by dementors and other forms of darkness. Rather similarly, EMDR draws on “calm place” and “containers,” exercises in which the therapist coaches a client to draw on a pleasant, “calm place” to go to when the reprocessed trauma becomes too extreme (ie if dementors get too close). These exercises, eventually taught in a way to be summoned by a mere word, enable you as a client to gain a “patronus” if the trauma “dementor” becomes too close and is presently too difficult to fully process.
Lastly, EMDR might effectively work as spell excellently, moderately, or just slightly. As with any other form of therapy, what you put into it as a client is what you get out of it. It is evidenced back, well-vetted by many, many clinicians, and is very successful at revealing pertinent memories and processing that talk therapy can do at a much slower rate.
Overall, EMDR is an excellent modality for you if you’re feeling stuck, unsure of how to get better, and have trained many other forms of therapies/therapists but haven’t found healing.