EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy. Online EMDR therapy is an evidence-based and effective therapy for a range of issues including trauma, anxiety, phobias, panic, PTSD, worry and more. Administering EMDR therapy online provides a means to have this more accessible to busy professionals and those living regionally with limited access to experienced and trained mental health professionals in your area.
We are passionate about supporting First Responders including Police, and Law enforcement, Ambulance, Emergency and Hospital workers and Health Professionals. There are a range of studies that support the effectiveness of EMDR with First Responders and the above issues to improve symptoms and distress.
It is founded on the Adaptive Information Processing theory which is a way to explain the way the brain, nervous system and body store and process traumatic and stressful memories differently from ordinary memories. Just like the physical body naturally heals itself when wounded your nervous system and brain is also capable of naturally healing itself. EMDR is a way to allow these processes to occur naturally without direct intervention from the therapist as in talk therapy. This is a type of somatic therapy where your mind and body will go where it needs to go.
How do our minds and nervous systems respond to traumatic/stressful events?
Traumatic or stressful memories that have a lot of emotional distress at the time put us into survival mode. In this mode we can experience a slowing down of time and find it hard to think as our bodies prepare to immobilise to protect us.
We have a few different survival modes that we can go into including fight, flight, freeze or appease. We are unable to choose a response as it is an instinctual response. When in this state the mind and body is unable to process the whole event and leads to the memory event being stored fragmentally and disjointed due to the experience of excess hormones.
Another impact of this survival mode is that as human beings we tend to make meaning and sense of the things that occur to us. In extreme situations our minds focus and ability to integrate all aspects of what is occurring is diminished and so we walk away with negative beliefs and cognitions of ourselves, others and the world. Common ones include feeling guilty or responsible even if on a cognition level you know it wasn’t your fault on a feelings level it doesn’t feel true.
Due to the high emotion of the event and the way it is stored in pieces its common to experience flashbacks and nightmares of the event and when reminders of trauma event come up. We can then experience a ‘memory piece of the event’ which could be a physical sensation, an emotion like fear, a cognition “im in danger”. This tends to feel like it is out of no-where with lots of intensity and we again feel like we are in survival mode and you feel unsafe.
What does EMDR do and what's it like?
It’s important to know that processing continues to occur post an EMDR processing session.
It’s a little like going to the gym for a workout and experience muscle soreness and stiffness due to lactic acid build-up. Similarly, your mind will continue to make connections and you may notice feelings, body sensations and thoughts, and memories that are in some way connected to the memory worked on in session. This is normal and natural and will pass.
There will also be positive thoughts, emotions and sensations and behaviours that will come up. It will be important to record what comes up for you and what you notice in your log book provided by your therapist. This will help your therapist to focus your work together next session.
EMDR uses Bilateral stimulation (BLS) to assist in processing the events and stay present in the moment. There are a variety of BLS that can be used including Eye movements, where you follow your therapists’ fingers side to side with your eyes, tactile method where you may be instructed to tap your knees or tap your chest (butterfly hugs), auditory where you will hear sounds/music alternating in each ear via earplugs/headset. You will have worked on strategies or resources to manage the intensity of feelings that come up together with the memory to be supported to stay within your window of tolerance. So, we want to aim to stay just a little outside of your comfort zone just not too much that the intensity can become overwhelming this is where change will occur. Time and space will be made at each session to feel more centred and have your nervous system return closer to baseline and a plan for self-care activities post session.
Process of EMDR
As with most types of therapies, people are complex and unique and what someone finds helpful and effective doesn’t work for everyone. Your therapist will take the time to get to know you and what your goais for therapy are and the presenting issue that brings you to therapy and tailor a therapy plan that suits you. For some clients we use a combination of
intervention techniques that suit your goals and collaboratively decide on a treatment plan adjusting it as needed.
Benefits and Outcomes
Once a memory has been processed to resolutions you can expect the following changes:
- The intensity or distress of the memory now to be less. This will mean that the memory will get stored as a normal mundane memory and the neural pathway for this to being retriggered by reminders of the event is less. An example is recalling what a memory 5 weeks ago going to work on a Tuesday at 8am. This will be hard to recall as it isn’t an emotionally charged memory and gets stored away and faded over time. However, with a distressing event you can call recall in vivid detail what occurred and also experience strong affect in the moment now. Instead with EMDR you will begin to feel like the event happened and it’s over now.
- You will also experience changes in the quality of the memory which can be less vivid or fuzzy and the detail’s begin to fade.
- Another change that occurs with EMDR is that you will have access to new useful perspective or meaning about the event for you that feels true. This will be a byproduct of updating the memory to include all the richness of the evidence that occurred and widening your minds eye view at the time that led to the skewed meaning or beliefs of the trauma event. This will be updating the meaning and cognition to be more accurate and feel true on an emotional level as well than just knowing it is true. This can also free you up to enjoying life again in the moment and engaging in behaviours you want to be doing.
Click here to view some videos to learn more about EMDR from the Australian Professional Body EMDRAA https://emdraa.org/emdr-resources/
What is EMDR Video explained
Sourced from EMDRAA website https://emdraa.org/emdr-resources/
EMDR Therapy for Police, Law enforcement and other First Responders
EMDR Therapy for Health Professionals and Hospital Workers
We are passionate about supporting Police and Law enforcement individuals to sustain their wellbeing and longevity in a demanding, stressful and often traumatic work role.
EMDR therapy provides a means to process traumatic and stressful events to combat cumulative stress and trauma. You will also learn some ways to reduce your stress response and calm your nervous system.
It can often be easy to go into numb mode and push through, and it often comes back when something triggers a previously stressful or traumatic event and then becomes harder to contain your emotions or nervous system response, which can be heart racing, panic attacks, flashbacks, being hypervigilant to perceived danger and nightmares. EMDR can help to reduce the sense of current threat and Nervous system arousal. We can help process those difficult encounters to achieve relief, and new perspectives that are helpful and meaningful for you.
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