Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy Los Angeles
Is EMDR Therapy Right for You?
You’re exhausted. You’re spending a lot of your time and energy managing your responses. You feel like you are easily triggered. You know you’ve been through some hard things in the past, and you are ready to address them (even if it’s scary).
First studied and coined by Francine Shapiro in 1987, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy technique designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories.
It’s achieved through guided eye movements that cross from left to right in a rhythmic pattern, otherwise known as bilateral stimulation.
EMDR therapy helps desensitize and reframe traumatic experiences by engaging with both hemispheres of the brain. This promotes adaptive healing and reduces distressing symptoms.
Our brains tend to latch on to negative events like Velcro. When we experience something traumatic, the event can get stuck in the part of the brain that was activated during the original trauma. EMDR helps the brain move through this unprocessed material.
If you grapple with unresolved, deep-seated trauma, a qualified EMDR therapist in Los Angeles can work with you to find relief.
Understanding Trauma: How It Happens and Its Lasting Effects
What is Trauma?
The term “trauma” is thrown around a lot these days—but what does it actually mean?
As a trauma-informed therapist, I typically explain to my clients that the term originates from the Greek word “τραύμα”, which translates to “wound” in English.
When the wounds left behind by difficult events go untreated, they can cause significant mental and physical suffering.
In a more clinical context, a traumatic response is experienced when an unexpected event (or series of events) makes an individual feel fundamentally unsafe and negatively shakes up their perception of reality.
Traumatic events overwhelm a person's ability to cope and frequently cause feelings of helplessness, which can diminish an individual’s sense of self.
A wide range of life experiences is considered a potential traumatic event. For example, these can include the loss of a loved one, violent acts, chronic misattunement, or living in a marginalized body.
What does an EMDR therapy session look like?
Over time, the memory becomes less vivid and distressing. Before the memory is “cleared” (an EMDR therapy phrase), you will install a more adaptive belief, like “I did the best I could,” or “I am safe now.”
Most clients describe feeling a shift not just emotionally, but also physically and cognitively.
It’s important to note that we do not dive right into traumatic material in the first session. We spend time building resources and ensuring you feel safe and ready before beginning that deeper work.
Once you are all “resourced up,” you will work with the therapist to identify a memory that still carries emotional weight or distress. The therapist will use a number of strategies to help you explore this memory - you will identify images, thoughts, feelings, body sensations, and beliefs connected to it.
After you have selected the memory, you will integrate bilateral stimulation while you hold the memory in your mind. The stimulation helps your brain do what it is naturally designed to do: digest and reprocess stuck or unhealed material so that the memory no longer feels overwhelming or frozen in time.
You do not need to talk through the memory in detail. In fact, most of the processing happens internally. The therapist will be there with you to guide, support, and help you stay regulated throughout the process.
In an EMDR therapy session, we are working to help your brain process distressing memories in a way that allows you to feel more regulated and grounded in the present moment. EMDR is a structure eight-phase process that consists of developing strategies to help you stay regulated, identifying memories and beliefs, desensitizing specific memories, and installing more adaptive beliefs.
Your first session of EMDR may feel like a typical “talk therapy,” as you and the therapist get to know one another better. You will identify your goals for treatment and develop a roadmap of how to get there.
The next step of EMDR treatment is the “resourcing” phase. The goal of this phase is to help you identify internal and external resources. Internal resources include the strengths you possess and the coping strategies you are able to use to regulate yourself. You will likely work with the therapist to develop additional internal coping tools — such as the ability to visualize a Safe or Calm Place, create a Container to temporarily hold distressing thoughts, or imagine a Light Stream to calm your body. You will also work with your therapist to identify external resources, such as people, places, or things that help you feel grounded and safe.
During this resourcing phase, you will also practice bilateral stimulation, which can be eye movements, tapping, or sound that alternates from one side of the body to the other. This process helps to strengthen these resources. The goal of the resourcing phase is to make sure you feel supported and equipped to manage difficult emotions.
EMDR Therapy in Los Angeles Can Help
Attentional Problems
Individuals who have experienced trauma, especially during childhood, often struggle with attention-related issues.
They may find it challenging to focus for extended periods of time or consistently engage in activities. Additionally, these individuals can lose their ability to filter out irrelevant information, leading to more frequent distractions.
Affect Regulation Issues
Traumatized individuals often grapple with regulating their emotions. This can manifest as emotions that are too intense or extreme. On the flip side, emotions may become subdued or muted.
It’s also common that once upset, individuals may have difficulty returning to a calm or neutral state.
Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms
To deal with emotional regulation problems, traumatized individuals might resort to various maladaptive coping strategies such as self-harm, substance abuse, or eating disorders.
Relationship Challenges
Trauma, especially when it’s inflicted by a trusted individual, can lead to a skewed perception of relationships. This can result in detrimental behaviors within the relationship such as aggression, arrogance, or people-pleasing.
What’s more, these individuals may feel a constant need for self-protection. They may begin to emotionally distance themselves from their loved ones as a result.
Distorted Perception of Self
Trauma can affect the formation of one’s self-identity, negatively influencing how one perceives their place in the world. Consequently, trauma can lead to low self-esteem.
This is why traumatized individuals are often in a constant battle with unwanted or distressing memories. Moreover, they may feel constant unease or sudden and intense episodes of fear.
EMDR Therapy Los Angeles FAQ
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In my experience, it isn’t easy to put a specific number of the length of time EMDR takes. Some individuals come in and have a few traumatic memories (or “targets”) that they want to work on, which could take a few months. Others may participate in EMDR for years. It really depends on the needs of the client and how they respond to treatment.
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EMDR therapy may be less effective for individuals with severe dissociative disorders or active and intense substance abuse issues. However, this varies on a case-to-case basis.
It may also be less suitable for those who are not ready to engage in trauma-focused therapy or have expectations of rapid results.
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There’s a growing body of evidence that supports the efficacy of EMDR therapy. In one particular study, three EMDR therapy sessions led to an 84% remission of PTSD diagnosis.
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Are you feeling overwhelmed? Struggling to stay focused and motivated?
Do you have conflict in your relationships? Or are you feeling like it is hard to connect with other people?
Are you engaging in avoidance through substances, overworking, overexercising, food, social media, or gaming?
There is a wide range of internal or external stressors that may lead you to feel overwhelmed, unfocused, and dissatisfied. Usually, it is a combination of factors that can lead us to a place where we are feeling like we would benefit from therapy.
Our experience as EMDR therapists is that when clients come to therapy with these "presenting problems," one of the most effective ways to treat the client is through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
For example, if you are working with a therapist because you are feeling like you can’t get things done, you will identify the core belief that is driving the behavior (e.g., I’m lazy and therefore I am going to stay in bed). Through EMDR, you are able to install a more adaptive belief (e.g., I am doing the best I can), which can ultimately change how you behave.
In other words, regardless of what brings you into therapy, EMDR is a way to help you change how you feel about yourself, others, and the world. When we change how we feel, we can change how we behave.
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The term trauma has been used so frequently in “pop psychology” that it is hard to even know how “trauma” could apply to your life. For many people, this term does not resonate with them. That’s okay.
Folks who do not identify as having experienced trauma can still benefit from EMDR.
While EMDR was developed in the late 1980s specifically to address traumatic memories, research and clinical practice have expanded EMDR's applications well beyond its original focus.
Today, EMDR is effectively used to address anxiety, depression, grief, complicated bereavement, issues with self-esteem, and performance anxiety. In fact, EMDR has even been shown to help with managing chronic pain!