EMDR is not a form of hypnosis. You will remain fully awake and conscious at all times during your session and you will have total control over what is happening.

If something traumatic happens to you whether it be a traffic or work accident, abuse, rape, bullying, combat stress, the memory of your experience may come crashing back into your mind, forcing you to relive the original event with the same intensity of feeling, like it is taking place in the present moment.

These experiences that pop into your awareness may present themselves as either distressing memories, flashbacks or nightmares, and are thought to occur because the mind was simply too overwhelmed during the event to process what was going on.

As a result, these unprocessed memories and the accompanying sights, sounds, smells, tastes, thoughts and feelings are stored in the brain in a raw form, where they can be accessed each time we experience something that triggers a recollection of the original event.

While it is not possible to erase trauma memories, the process of EMDR can alter the way these traumatic memories are stored within the brain, making them easier to manage and causing you less distress. This is done through a highly structured eight phase protocol, which address the past, present and future aspects of a stored memory, requiring clients to recall their distressing image by using bilateral stimulation and duel attention. This usually involves noticing images, thoughts and feelings whilst undertaking eye movements, listening to tones or using hand taps.

 

I use the latest equipment from America to apply bilateral stimulation and dual attention. This process is thought to replicate the rapid eye movements that occur in sleep and by which the emotional and rational side of the brain communicate and process experiences. The video below explores an EMDR session in more detail and although I use a lap scanner instead of the vibrate buttons the technique is the same.