EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing

Do you have a negative self image? Have you suffered from a traumatic accident, or witnessed a traumatic event? Have you been physically or sexually abused? Do you suffer from intense fears, which make your life difficult to manage? If so, EMDR may be the right treatment for you.

EMDR is a psychotherapeutic technique pioneered at the end of the 1980s by an American psychologist, Francine Shapiro. Shapiro discovered one day, whilst walking in a park, suffering from anxiety, that moving her eyes from left to right helped her to decrease the level of her negative thoughts. She decided to test this technique on both herself, and also on some of her patients suffering from PTSD, (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders). She further developed the technique by adding successful elememts of other conventional methods. Thus, the EMDR technique was born.

The principle behind the EMDR technique is based on the idea of the eye movement de-sensitisation. A parallel has been established between the eye movements used in EMDR and those which occur during the REM, (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep or 'dream sleep'. This phase of sleep is famously known for intervening in the process of memorising data acquired during the day. The EMDR technique is based on the same principle, allowing blocked processes to be eased. EMDR helps to reprogramme the static memory of a traumatic event, using a method of visual, tactile or auditory stimulation. This stimulation acts upon the memory of the event by dissociating the negative emotional charge of the event. To summarise, the memory is still there, (and always will be), but the emotion behind it has disappeared.

EMDR is never used during the first session. The purpose of the first session is gather the relevant information about the patient and about their trauma in order to prepare the right treatment depending on the patient and on the presenting symptom. This approach applies, not only to EMDR, but to most of our therapies. Several conventional methods are sometimes necessary to allow the patient to put words to his suffering, and to communicate it. Phase 2 of the EMDR treatment can then begin.

The EMDR technique contains 8 phases; each phase may require more than one session depending on the patient and the presenting trauma.

Phase 1: history of the trauma, assessment of the presenting symptom and definition of the treatment

Phase 2: preparation phase with a description of the process that will be used, definition of  the 'safe place' and the 'stop signal'

Phase 3: assessment phase of a cognitive nature (positive and negative cognition), but also emotional and body sensations

Phase 4: desensitisation phase and retreatment of the information using the eye movement

Phase 5: installation phase of the positive belief and verification

Phase 6: body sensation phase including a 'body scan' in case some tensions remain in the body

Phase 7: management of the session closure

Phase 8: re-evaluation phase

The EMDR technique is particularly efficient in the treatment of PTSD, (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders), and is one of the two techniques recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, (N.I.C.E), for the treatment of post-traumatic disorders. Children can also benefit from the EMDR technique, no matter what the trauma, (abuse of a physical/sexual nature, stress, survivors or witnesses of natural disaster, etc..). PTSD can develop at any age. Young children may well suffer from nightmares, or flashbacks linked to the traumatic event. They may even 'act out', re-living the traumatic event through play. A young survivor of a road accident may, for instance, re-live the accident by simulating a serious car crash with toy car.