No one knows precisely how EMDR works. We do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it ordinarily does. This is obvious to most of us who have experienced moments of confusion. One traumatic moment becomes frozen in time and, remembering a trauma often produces feeling as disorienting as the original experience. Images, sound, smells and feeling have not changed. Such memories have a lasting affect on the way a person sees the world, and relates to people perceived to be interfering with their life.

EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way the brain functions. Normal information processing begins to resume when the original traumatic event is brought to mind. Following a successful EMDR session, the images, sounds and feelings are no longer relived with the same negative intensity, as when the event occurred. What happened is remembered without the emotional upset. While many types of therapy have a similar goal, EMDR is unique in that sets of eye movements or alternating left-right attention, accelerates the process so that a successful resolution is attained much more rapidly. What happens during EMDR appears similar to what occurs naturally when dreaming or during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. EMDR may be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that enables a person to re-experience disturbing material in new and less disturbing ways.

   Back