This article covers the following topics:
- The definition, history, and efficacy of EMDR therapy
- How to prepare for EMDR therapy
- Phases of an effective EMDR therapy technique
- Common EMDR therapy techniques
- How to apply EMDR for specific issues
- The benefits and potential side effects of EMDR
- How to measure the effectiveness of EMDR therapy
- The challenges tied to EMDR therapy and how to overcome them
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a special psychotherapy used for teen mental health disorders. It is most importantly used for complex teen post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
At Key Healthcare, this therapy is offered to help teens with depression, trauma, and compulsive behaviors. It is also used for substance abuse, anxiety, and PTSD so they can lead healthy and productive lives. Let’s explore the methods used in EMDR and how they treat different conditions.
What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is a treatment that uses quick, rhythmic eye movements and other stimuli. This process helps people safely process traumatic memories. These movements reduce the power of emotionally charged memories.
History and Development of EMDR Therapy
Dr. Francine Shapiro developed EMDR therapy in the late 1980s. While walking, she noticed her eye movements seemed to lessen negative feelings from painful memories and felt it had a numbing effect.
Through experiments, Dr. Shapiro found a similar response in others. However, eye movements alone were not enough for a full therapeutic effect. She then added a thinking component and other treatment pieces, leading to Eye Movement Desensitization (EMD).
Dr. Shapiro later changed the name to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in 1991. The change was made to reflect the insights and cognitive shifts caused by the treatment. This new name also helped her identify a theory she had created to explain the effects: information processing theory.
Explanation of How EMDR Therapy Works
EMDR is based on the idea that our brains do not always process traumatic events correctly, leading to flashbacks or nightmares. Our brains may also struggle to tell the difference between past and present. This explains why we react as if reliving trauma when something reminds us of it.
This type of therapy uses the adaptive information processing model, which suggests that reprocessing a disturbing memory can help us move past it. EMDR works to change how traumatic memories are stored in our brains and helps us process them. Therefore, we do not have to feel intense emotional reactions when recalling such memories.
During EMDR therapy sessions, clients briefly focus on trauma and perform side-to-side eye movements while thinking of a specific memory. This engages both sides of the brain through bilateral stimulation. For those with vision problems, the therapist may use audio tones in both ears or rhythmic tapping on both hands.
Efficacy of EMDR Therapy
Since Dr. Francine Shapiro developed EMDR in 1989, over 20,000 practitioners have been trained. This therapy is considered safe, with no major reported side effects. However, its effectiveness is debated, as some critics claim most studies have few participants. Its supporters have shown its success in reports combining data from different studies.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense highly recommend EMDR therapy for veterans as a PTSD treatment. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) also recognizes EMDR as an effective treatment for PTSD. It is also found useful in helping those who are uncomfortable talking about their traumatic events.
Preparation for Effective EMDR Therapy Techniques
Assessing if EMDR is Right for You
Your teen should consult a therapist to see if EMDR is the right treatment for their anxiety, pain, phobias, or childhood trauma. It can also help with grief, teen addiction, teen eating disorders, and PTSD. They should also be ready for the work this treatment requires, like building emotional tolerance.”
Finding a Qualified EMDR Therapist
Please contact us if you are looking for qualified EMDR therapists for your teen. Other ways to find a qualified therapist include:
- Asking for recommendations from a medical provider or therapist
- Using the EMDR International Association’s directory
- Using your insurance directory
- Using the EMDR Institute’s directory
What to Expect During Your First EMDR Therapy Session
Knowing what to expect during the first session helps with mental preparation. Here is what your teen should expect:
- They will connect and get to know their therapist. You should advise them to ask as many questions as they can.
- They will discuss their childhood, which can be a time of trauma for many teens. Some questions may be uncomfortable, and they should be prepared. Advise them to be open with the therapist.
- They will likely start to discuss the sources of their distress. They may find themselves talking about a bad memory or sharing negative feelings.
- They will discuss their mental predispositions, which allows the therapist to create an effective treatment plan for them.
Building a Trusting Relationship with Your EMDR Therapist
Because therapy topics are sensitive, it is normal for teens to hesitate to open up. However, counselors are trained to offer a safe, non-judgmental experience. Clients do not give up control, so therapy moves at a comfortable pace. Building trust with a therapist can take time. It is important to share any hesitation with them, as they want you to feel safe.
Duration of EMDR Therapy
The length of EMDR therapy depends on a person’s situation. Teens who are engaged in therapy may see results quickly, often in 2-3 sessions. For others, it may take 10-12 sessions.
Phases of Effective EMDR Therapy
There are eight phases of EMDR therapy. Let’s discuss them further:
Phase One: History Taking
History-taking happens in the first two sessions and may continue if new problems appear. The therapist will work with your teen to assess their history, find negative beliefs, and create a treatment plan. Your child also gets a chance to discuss the specific problem and its symptoms.
Phase Two: Preparation
Preparation is usually done in the first four sessions but may take longer for highly traumatized teens. During this phase, the clinician explains the EMDR process and teaches coping skills. These skills help clients deal with emotional disturbances and establish a safe space through trust.
Phase Three: Assessment
The third phase involves accessing targets in a controlled way for processing. The therapist works with the client to find target memories and set a positive cognition, like “I am worthwhile.” Your teen will also identify negative emotions and physical sensations tied to the target. The therapist also uses the SUD scale to rate distress levels.
Phase Four: Desensitization
Desensitization focuses on the client’s SUD scale measurements. It helps find and resolve similar events tied to the target. The therapist uses bilateral stimulation to help process the memory, monitors stress levels, and deals with any blocks.
Phase Five: Installation
During the fifth phase, the client is guided to strengthen the positive cognition. This is set to replace the original negative belief.
Phase Six: Body Scan
After the positive cognition is strengthened in phase five, the participant will focus on the original target. This is done to find any remaining body tension from unresolved thoughts. If any physical sensations are found, the therapist will help them address the distress.
Phase Seven: Closure
This phase ensures the client leaves the session feeling better than when they started. If it is impossible to process traumatic events in one session, the therapist can use self-calming techniques to help them. This includes reviewing progress and planning for the next session. Many therapists also tell clients how to record their experiences in a journal.
Phase Eight: Re-evaluation
The last phase is used to assess the progress made in past sessions. It helps identify new therapeutic targets and continues to reinforce positive emotions. This phase helps determine the long-term success of the treatment.
Common Techniques Used in EMDR Therapy
Resource Development and Installation (RDI)
RDI is one of the most effective resourcing techniques in EMDR. It is often applied in complex PTSD treatment for clients who have trouble with affect tolerance. It lowers dissociation and improves stability.
The Butterfly Hug
The butterfly hug is a relaxation method made for EMDR that can be done at any time. It counts as bilateral stimulation because it crosses the body’s midline. The other side of the body is activated when a limb crosses the body’s center. The butterfly hug stimulates the brain’s left and right sides to work together, which helps reduce stress and anxiety.
The Flash Technique
The flash technique is used during preparation to reduce the intensity of very disturbing memories. This quick and gentle approach helps clients with depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, or anxiety process trauma. It is applied to the following clients:
- Clients who are afraid to explore their memories
- Clients worried about accessing their traumatic material
- Clients who may dissociate
- Clients who can easily become emotionally overwhelmed
This EMDR technique helps lessen the burden of exposure-related disturbance. It can also make clients more open to new points of view during Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
The SUD Scale Technique
The SUD scale technique, or Subjective Units of Distress Scale, helps therapists understand the intensity of a client’s distress. It can be used to track a treatment plan’s progress and find areas that need more work.
The Cognitive Interweave Technique
EMDR therapy uses cognitive interweaves when processing stops, time is short, or the client is feeling intense emotions. This technique is very important for treating moral injury issues and blocking reliefs.
Effective EMDR Therapy Techniques for Specific Issues
Trauma
EMDR can be used with other treatments to help with complex trauma, PTSD, and childhood trauma.
Treating PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that is common in people who have been through traumatic events. These can include serious accidents, natural disasters, sexual assault, war, or bullying.
Common signs of PTSD include vivid flashbacks, avoidance, mood changes, and altered thinking. To treat PTSD, EMDR focuses on the brain’s memory centers, specific events, and triggers. It helps patients process upsetting thoughts and memories related to a trauma, relieving them of PTSD symptoms.
Treating Childhood Trauma
Childhood trauma refers to scary, violent, or life-threatening events a child goes through. Common signs include trust issues, avoidance, depression, flashbacks, and anger. EMDR can be used with personal treatment plans to help teens cope with their pasts. It can help fade painful, traumatic memories.
Treating Complex Trauma
Complex trauma happens when people are exposed to many related traumatic experiences. The brain and body get too overwhelmed to process them. Signs include trouble controlling emotions, feeling empty or worthless, and general anger. To treat complex trauma, the EMDR protocol is changed to consider the client’s needs and the time frame. The therapist has to work on many memories to help the client find closure.
Anxiety and Depression
EMDR can be used for depression, panic attacks, and anxiety disorders in adolescence.
Treating Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are marked by repeated episodes of excessive worry, fear, or dread. People with these disorders may also feel weak, tense, or nervous. Other symptoms include trembling, sweating, and trouble concentrating.
To treat anxiety with EMDR, a therapist may include mindfulness aor CBT to counter negative thinking before starting EMDR. Others might suggest medication for symptom relief while using EMDR for long-term benefits.
Treating Depression
Depression is a serious mental health disorder that changes how people act, think, and feel. Common causes include stress, drugs and alcohol, and loneliness. EMDR can help with teen depression by offering relief from symptoms like sadness and low self-esteem. It can help resolve unprocessed trauma and reframe negative beliefs.
Treating Panic Attacks
A panic attack causes sudden and intense anxiety. It may trigger serious physical reactions even when there is no real danger.
Common signs include trembling, sweating, fear of dying, shortness of breath, nausea, and chest pain. Other symptoms are hot flashes, chills, headache, and dizziness.
This therapy can help reduce the frequency of panic attacks. EMDR engages the parasympathetic nervous system, which creates a calming effect that helps with panic symptoms. Studies have shown decreased anticipatory anxiety and panic complaints in in clients who have EMDR therapy.
Addiction and Compulsive Behaviors
EMDR therapy can help in treating addiction, eating disorders, and compulsive behaviors.
Treating Addiction
Teen addiction is a lasting disorder that forces people to seek and use drugs despite bad outcomes. EMDR can be used to change how people view and respond to triggers that cause addictive behaviors. One study found that EMDR therapy could be more effective than teen CBT for substance use disorders.
Treating Eating Disorders
An eating disorder is a serious condition that causes unhealthy eating habits and a focus on body weight, size, or shape. Common examples are binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia. Many eating disorders are caused by traumatic events like abuse, which EMDR can help treat. By targeting trauma, EMDR addresses the root causes of this disorder.
Treating Compulsive Behaviors
Compulsive behaviors are performed over and over, even with harmful results. Examples include shopping, gambling, hoarding, skin picking, and washing. EMDR therapy can help people overcome their intrusive thoughts and compulsions. A therapist can help patients process emotions tied to this behavior through bilateral stimulation.
Benefits of EMDR Therapy
- It helps people work on negative thought patterns by finding and challenging them.
- It is a brief therapy that produces fast results, with positive outcomes often seen in the first three sessions.
- Participants do not have to talk in detail about their painful experiences.
- It can improve self-esteem by helping people heal from negative thoughts and painful memories.
- Bilateral stimulation, a key technique in EMDR, activates the brain region associated with comfortable feelings and relaxation, which helps with chronic pain relief.
Potential Side Effects of EMDR Therapy Techniques
Here are the three main side effects of EMDR:
Physical Discomfort
Many people feel physical sensations like crying or muscle tension during EMDR sessions. The good news is that these feelings do not last long. Your teen can ask for a break if they become too much.
Vivid Dreams/Nightmares
Your child will likely experience new and intense dreams as their brain reprocesses information after an EMDR session.
Temporary Increase in Distress
By reprocessing traumatic memories, EMDR can make teens feel more emotionally vulnerable. Advise them to rest and practice self-care after the session.
Common Concerns and Misconceptions about EMDR Therapy
- EMDR is a relatively new therapy and is, therefore, less effective
EMDR has been used for over 30 years. Many studies have also proven it is an effective treatment for mental health disorders like PTSD.
- EMDR is a form of hypnosis
Most people falsely believe that EMDR is hypnosis because it uses eye movement. In reality, EMDR uses eye movements as well as bilateral and other rhythmic stimulations to improve the body’s natural information-processing ability.
- There is a possibility that EMDR can plant false memories in a patient’s brain
EMDR only helps process memories that already exist; it does not create new ones.
- EMDR is only used for PTSD
Teen ptsd treatment is the most common use for EMDR. However, it is also used for depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. Your teen and their therapist will decide if it is the right approach.
- It’s possible to go crazy from EMDR
While EMDR can cause discomfort as one relives past traumas, it is very unlikely for someone not to return to normal. No one has been reported to go crazy from the process, mainly because therapists provide the right coping skills.
- EMDR can be administered on the first day of therapy
EMDR requires a lot of history-taking, planning, and preparation before the first session. It is therefore impossible to start on the first day.
- People are forced to talk about their trauma in detail during EMDR
The EMDR therapist will only need a few details to help you reprocess. Your teen does not have to share every detail of a painful event.
Common Challenges in EMDR Therapy
- Emotional Overwhelm
Processing stuck memories can be emotionally overwhelming. However, our qualified therapists at Key Healthcare are here to guide and support your teen.
- Dissociation
Dissociation happens when a person’s thoughts, memory, or identity feel disconnected due to trauma. While rare, starting EMDR too early can cause instability or increased suicidal ideation.
- Resistance to Therapy
EMDR may not be effective if the patient’s brain is used to disconnecting from emotions or their nervous system is unstable from early stress.
- Therapist-Related Challenges
Therapists also face challenges, such as deciding where to start, which memories to target, and if the client is ready for processing.
Overcoming the Challenges in EMDR Therapy
To overcome these challenges, it is important that your teen finds a trained and experienced EMDR therapist. They should also try different EMDR adaptations and techniques.
Measuring the Effectiveness of EMDR Therapy
Research on EMDR Therapy
Being a unique technique, several studies have been done on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, especially for PTSD treatment. Some of these studies have shown success rates of as high as 77%. Extensive EMDR research has also proven that processing memories of traumatic experiences can help relieve negative physical sensations, beliefs, and emotions.
How to Track Progress
Patients in EMDR therapy should feel relief after 2-3 sessions. Once the therapy desensitizes traumatic memories, they become less emotionally upsetting.
Success Story
Here is an EMDR success story from Chloe Daniels. She claims that EMDR changed her life and is the best therapy she has ever tried. There are many such stories online. Your teen could have a success story, too, if you contact us at Key Healthcare.
Conclusion
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing has proven to be an effective treatment for trauma-related conditions like anxiety and PTSD. Contact or schedule a consultation with us to help your teen safely process their traumatic memories. Using eye movements and other bilateral simulations can lead to a less stressful and more productive life.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Who Can Benefit from EMDR Therapy?
EMDR therapy can help people with negative thoughts, poor self-image, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. It is also good for people who do not want to talk in detail about their experiences.
Does Insurance Cover EMDR Therapy?
EMDR therapy can be costly, so most treatment centers work with different insurance providers to help clients with the bills. Kindly with us to learn more about your coverage.
What is the Success Rate of EMDR Therapy?
Many studies have found that EMDR therapy is effective for several mental health disorders. Some show a success rate as high as 77% for conditions like PTSD.
What is the Difference Between EMDR Therapy and Traditional Talk Therapy?
While both EMDR and talk therapy help people make sense of their trauma, EMDR helps them reprocess it in a healthy way. EMDR is often faster than talk therapy, as many people see positive effects in 2-3 sessions. It can also be cheaper and less time-consuming.
Can EMDR Be Used for Children?
Yes. EMDR therapy can be used for people of all ages, including children and teens. Research shows it can be an effective PTSD treatment for children as young as 4-8
Can EMDR Therapy Be Done Online?
Yes. EMDR can be done in person or online, depending on your teen’s schedule and comfort level. The main phases and principles do not change regardless of the method.
Can EMDR Therapy Be Used for Phobias?
Yes. EMDR therapy can be used to treat phobias with high anxiety levels. It works by targeting events where people encounter the phobic object or situation.
Can EMDR Therapy Be Used in Conjunction with Medication?
EMDR can be used by itself or with medications. Regardless of the approach, it still offers a safe and effective way of dealing with specific mental health conditions.
How Many Sessions of EMDR Therapy Are Needed?
While some people may see benefits after just a few sessions, EMDR therapy usually lasts for 6-12 sessions. These are typically delivered once or twice a week.
