Indigo Oliver is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) working in private practice in Yukon, Oklahoma. She provides counseling services to children, adolescents, and adults. Her areas of focus include anxiety, depression, trauma and life transitions. She is affirming of individuals in the LGBTQ+ community.
EMDR is first and foremost a part of something called the Adaptive Information Processing Model (AIP). This model is a way that EMDR therapists understand and approach their clients’ mental health treatment. In the AIP model, presenting concerns (anxiety, depression) are seen as the result of memories from the past that have been stored in a maladaptive (unhelpful) way. Maladaptive memories are stored differently in the brain–they are stored in something called “state form.” In state form, maladaptive memories hold loads of sensory information: images, sounds, smells, emotions, body sensations. This is why some people experience flashbacks of images or emotions from the past, even when they are in the present. Maladaptive memories also create negative beliefs about yourself, others, and the world around you. Maladaptive memories impact our present functioning because our brains do not know that the maladaptively stored memory is from the past, and our brain acts like the danger or distress from the past is occurring in the present.
An adaptive memory is stored without the intense images, body sensations, and emotions of a maladaptive memory. It is neutral when accessed, or brings no distress.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and it is a technique that therapists use to address and resolve maladaptively stored memories and help your brain reprocess these memories so that they can be stored adaptively. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to reprocess traumatic memories and decrease the distress associated with them. Bilateral stimulation can be the eye movements you may be familiar with from TV or movies, or it can also be tapping or auditory stimulation. EMDR has been approved for the treatment of traumatic memories and for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and is recognized as an effective treatment by the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Department of Veteran Affairs.
More than 30 randomized controlled trials have been conducted on EMDR. In some of those studies, 84-90% of single trauma victims no longer met the criteria for PTSD after only three 90 minute sessions.
EMDR therapy has been found through research to achieve similar results to Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) or Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), without the homework between sessions and with less verbal processing.
Therapists who are certified to practice EMDR go through extensive training and consultation throughout the course of the rest of their career.
Trauma is a word that many people are hesitant to associate with themselves. Part of that comes from misunderstandings about what the word “trauma” means. While trauma can be “Big T Traumas” such as a veteran coming back from war and having flashbacks, “little t traumas” can also be anything that at the time felt too overwhelming, too scary, too terrifying, too bad to handle.
Many of my adult clients often have trauma from childhood abuse, neglect and emotional abandonment, growing up as part of the LGBTQ+ community, toxic and/or abusive relationships, sexual assault, and single incident traumas (witnessed or experienced).
As a result of these experiences, many of my clients show symptoms of flashbacks, intrusive thoughts or voices, depression (including self-harm and suicidal thoughts), anxiety (including fears, phobias or panic attacks), irritability, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbance, dissociation, and difficulties with social connection.
Through reprocessing these maladaptively stored memories, clients are able to store these memories in an adaptive way and no longer experience the symptoms associated with those memories.
Therapists who provide EMDR to children undergo further training. For children, EMDR can mitigate the impact of adverse childhood experiences on a child’s health and wellbeing as they develop into the future.
In my work with children and teens, I help resolve adverse childhood experiences and their impact on current functioning.
Common adverse childhood experiences include divorce or separation, moves, single incident traumas (ex: scary experience while swimming, witnessing someone getting hurt), bullying (in person or online), childhood abuse, sexual abuse, having a family member with mental illness, witnessing domestic violence, or witnessing frightening media.
As a result of these experiences, many children I work with experience social anxiety, difficulties with social connection, fears, performance anxiety, apprehension about change, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, nightmares, fear of nighttime or sleeping in their own bed, and separation anxiety.
EMDR resolves these symptoms so that they can return to functioning in a healthy manner.
EMDR is an 8 phase process. During our first few meetings, I will gather information about your goals for therapy and the symptoms you are experiencing and would like to change (ex: I want to be able to speak in front of others). I will help you identify where these symptoms are coming from and we will work together to identify memories that need to be reprocessed (ex: memory of parent criticizing how I talked). I will guide you through a process called resourcing, where you will learn techniques that will help you to stay regulated and feel safe before we begin reprocessing. Once you are prepared, I will facilitate the reprocessing of these memories through eye movements and/or tapping. Once you have completed reprocessing on the past memories that were identified, I will work with you to address present triggers (ex: talking on a work meeting) and prepare for how you want to be able to handle those triggers in the future (ex: speaking with confidence and ease).
The main differences between EMDR therapy and talk therapy are the amount of verbal processing and the length of time.
In traditional talk therapy, it can take a great deal of time (rightly so) to build rapport, establish a sense of safety, begin to discuss presenting issues, identify what from the past might be contributing to those issues, and work on changing patterns through behavior change such as practicing coping skills, setting boundaries, learning new ways of communication, etc. However, while the memories from the past are still stored in a way that is maladaptive, these memories still impact functioning and get in the way of behavior change. You can also understand that there is a great deal of talking and presenting concerns that can get in the way of addressing the memories contributing to these concerns that lie beneath the surface. Talking about traumatic memories without the proper techniques to contain those memories and stay grounded in the present can make things feel more distressing than they were to start with.
EMDR is a therapeutic approach and technique that involves keeping one foot in the present and one foot in the past. EMDR reverses the process of talk therapy, working on the maladaptive memories FIRST and reprocessing them so that they can be stored in a way that is adaptive and prepares you for the behavior changes that are desired. After reprocessing, EMDR also prepares the mind for how you want to act and feel in future situations that may be triggering or difficult for you in the past. Using bilateral stimulation to reinforce positive learned behaviors deepens your connection to them, making them more accessible in the everyday. EMDR also does this using less verbal processing and more of your brain’s natural processing systems. Talking about difficult memories is hard and can activate difficult emotions, body sensations, and images. EMDR therapy shortens the length of time that you are activated, as well as reduces the amount of verbal discussion of the traumatic memory. After EMDR therapy, the activation associated with that memory can be significantly reduced if not eliminated entirely.
Adverse Childhood Experiences explained
What is it like to experience EMDR? (video)
The EMDR International Association has a journal called Journal of EMDR Practice and Research that can be searched online for research on how EMDR works with different diagnoses, client populations or client experiences.