What Can You Expect to Change as a Result of EMDR Therapy
Okay, I’m going to be blunt right off the bat here- I can’t be 100% sure what you, as an individual, will specifically see as a result of undergoing EMDR. What I can do, though, is provide you with an estimate of what can be expected and provide you with some of my own experiences as well. Hopefully, this can shed some light onto some of the things that you may experience if you decide to undergo this treatment. While I’ll explain a little about how EMDR can help treat “big T” and “little t” traumas, this blog will focus specifically on what can change as a result of “big T” trauma. I’ll do another blog at some point on what you can expect to change with “little t” traumas as well.
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is used as a therapy treatment for trauma. When thinking about trauma, most people consider the “big T” traumas such as assault, natural disaster, war, or any other life-threatening event. While EMDR is an excellent treatment modality for these concerns, EMDR also treats the “little t” traumas. These are those ‘everyday’ traumas people experience such as invalidation, bullying, rejection, etc. While these are not life-threatening, they have a similar impact on the brain and will, therefore, impact someone’s mood, beliefs about themselves, behaviors, and more. When we use EMDR to treat trauma, whether that trauma is “big T” or “little t” trauma, those neural networks associated with the trauma are healed and are integrated into adaptive networks causing our mood, thoughts, and behaviors to shift in a positive, more adaptive way.
This can be a difficult thing to understand, so let me do my best to explain and provide an example.
Let’s say someone, let’s call this hypothetical person Susie, was at home at night, when a stranger broke in, assaulted Susie, and left. It would be understandable for Susie to develop PTSD from this experience. In the moment of the assault, Susie’s body went into fight-or-flight (there are many more responses than just those two, but that’s a blog for another day)- she would have experienced a surge of energy in her body, her muscles would have tensed, her heart rate and breathing would have increased, blood flow to non-essential organs would have stopped and been redirected to her muscles, heart, and lungs. The energy coursing through her body would have traveled to her brain and sent a literal shock in her brain.
The trauma of this moment would cause a trauma network to form in Susie’s brain, separate from her adaptive networks. Everything she felt, saw, heard, smelled, tasted, thought, emotionally felt, etc. from that experience can now be labeled as ‘dangerous’ by her brain, that’s how triggers are formed. Our neural networks contain all of our 5 senses, thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, beliefs, and even thoughts about the future and what our future may hold. Anytime Susie is confronted by something she heard, touched, saw, etc. from that assault, those things now act as triggers, and she is pulled right into that trauma network. Being in that network, she may physically feel, emotionally feel, think, etc. the same things she did that night.
After the assault, Susie may struggle smelling certain things, hearing certain noises, or even emotionally experiencing certain things. All of these can cause that same reaction from that night: heart racing, breathing increasing, intense energy flowing throughout her body.
She may start feeling intense fear, shame, anger, etc. Her thinking may be impacted and thoughts from that day may start racing in her mind and she cannot access her more adaptive networks that contain helpful information like all the things she did to increase her safety like installing new locks, security systems, etc.
She might not even be able to realize, when those triggers are present in current day, that she is actually perfectly safe. This can cause issues for Susie long-term. She may experience hypervigilance, impulsivity, shifts in her mood, ability to connect to others. She may not be able to be alone, if her assailant was a man, she may not be comfortable around some, or most, men. Her sleep may decline due to nightmares or not being able to calm her system down enough to sleep, she might be afraid to be home alone at night, her ability to focus may be impacted, and, if significant enough and if left untreated, this may impact her functioning at work, in relationships, etc.
If Susie were to engage in EMDR, she would process through that event. Her therapist, after completing Phase 1 of treatment, would have Susie process that night, using bilateral stimulation (both of these are explained here). The bilateral stimulation would help shake that trauma network lose and help that network integrate into a more adaptive network. When that happens, Susie, when confronted by her triggers, will no longer be sucked into that trauma network. She will be able to be home alone and not feel that intense fear. When she’s around men, she will notice that she’s calmer and think more clearly. Her focus will start to increase and her sleep will improve.
Susie will notice that the things that bothered her before, the triggers she used to experience, will no longer have that hold on her that they used to. Susie will not forget that the assault happened. Instead, what happens, is that the information from that night is integrated more adaptively. This means that Susie will take that experience and pull the helpful and useful information from it and leave the rest. When Susie looks back on the assault, she will no longer feel the intense shame or fear. Instead of believing she should have done more, she’ll be able to recognize the things she did in that moment to keep herself safe the best she could and ensure that she survived that experience.
With the help of EMDR processing, Susie may even start to feel empowered by her experience, seeing all the things she did to stay alive, all the things she can do to keep herself safe, and be emboldened by the knowledge that she is capable of handling even the most scary and stressful situations. While these changes might take several processing sessions, Susie can expect to start feeling relief from even just one processing session.
While this is just one example, the bottom line is this- when we experience a trauma, a separate trauma network is formed. This will include all 5 senses, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs about ourselves. When we’re pulled into that network, we start to feel the way we did, physically and emotionally, at the time of the event. This can impact so many areas of our lives and cause so much distress. With EMDR processing, that trauma network is integrated into a more adaptive network. You’ll no longer be impacted by those same triggers, your beliefs about yourself will improve, and you’ll notice more adaptive shifts in your behavior as well. If you’re interested in seeing what can change for you, sign up for EMDR today!
If you are interested in starting EMDR Therapy, consider scheduling with a therapist at CCDBT. We’d love to go more in-depth with this skill and many more like it!
About the Author
Maria Mangione (she/her), M.A., LPCC-S is a licensed clinical counselor who specializes in dialectical behavior therapy. Maria works to help people develop the tools they need to develop trust in themselves and build their life worth living. Maria believes in having meaningful connections with her clients and believes that therapy and healing can be fun. Click Here to learn more about Maria’s experience and therapeutic style.