What is EMDR?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is known for helping people process trauma, but let’s explore ways that it can sometimes make things worse.

How EMDR Works

EMDR does involve talking about trauma, but not in the same way as traditional talk therapy. In EMDR, you identify specific memories, images, or beliefs related to your trauma. You discuss what happened, how it makes you feel now, and any negative beliefs you have about yourself because of it.

Why Trauma Doesn’t Respond to Verbal Pathways

When you experience trauma, the way that it is processed or not processed, causes retraumatization so you feel you’re constantly reliving the trauma. This is because the when you experience trauma, your brain is overwhelmed. It can’t process the experience so it drops the ball and the memory gets fragmented. These fragments pop into consciousness as intrusive thoughts that revivify the trauma, like you’re experience it again in the present moment.

Talking about trauma revivifies the experience.

Not cool.

Talking about your trauma can cause intense emotional distress, flashbacks, or panic. Often, new fragments of distressing memories can come up as you try to remember.

Remembering is not recovering.

Your life is constantly hijacked by the past. You want to forget. Not remember.

Emotional Distress from Talking About Trauma

During the main part of EMDR, you briefly focus on the traumatic memory while the therapist guides you through bilateral stimulation (like moving your eyes back and forth, tapping, or sounds). 

You have to focus on what comes up in your mind about the trauma, and you share your thoughts, feelings, or body sensations as you think about the trauma.

Talking about trauma can be hard and sometimes makes things feel worse before they get better. This is called Iatrogenic harm, when what is trying to help, unintentionally makes trauma worse. Discussing painful memories can bring up strong emotions, anxiety, or physical reactions. For most individuals, just talking about what happened can feel overwhelming or even retraumatizing. 

Because remembering is not recovering, some individuals avoid therapy or stop after a few sessions; however, it is the unresolved trauma that keeps them going back, even when the therapy creates an iatrogenic effect.

How Talking Can Make Trauma Worse

EMDR makes you talk about your trauma to identify and process it, although, it doesn’t force you to relive or describe every detail out loud, not everyone finds relief in talking about trauma.

For most, putting words to what happened can make the memories more vivid or distressing. Trauma is remembered in the present tense, so you re-live it when you remember it.

Because trauma hijacks the present moment, talking can increase anxiety and make symptoms worse. Most trauma is stored in the body and mind in ways that can’t easily be accessed or explained with words anyways..

Trauma Is Often Non-Verbal

Trauma isn’t just about memories you can talk about. It’s often stored in the body and brain in non-verbal ways-like images, sensations, or emotions that don’t have words. That’s why some people struggle to describe what happened or how they feel but they just can’t seem to forget. Trauma is stored in on-verbal areas of the brain, this is why talking about it can make it worse, not better.

OEI Therapy vs EMDR

Observed and Experiential Integration (OEI) therapy uses visual pathways instead of verbal pathways. Visual pathways do not require you to talk about your trauma.

OEI therapy guides your eyes in specific ways to help your brain process trauma using visual not verbal pathways, and targets the non-verbal parts of trauma, working with body sensations and visual memories.

Observed and Experiential Integration can be less overwhelming than therapies that require you to talk about it because you can find relief from trauma as your brain integrates and releases the intensity of traumatic memories through these visual techniques.

OEI resolves trauma through visual, not verbal, pathways and is safer, gentle and effective because it is based in Neuroscience and works with the non-verbal ways the brain stores trauma.

If you’ve tried talk therapies but you’re not 100% satisfied with the results, OEI therapy offers an effective science-backed solution because it works with the visual pathways that can integrate and resolve trauma.

And when trauma is integrated, the past will feel like it is in the past. You can start to regain feelings of self, safety and hope so you can create a whole new future.

Let’s connect.