What is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)?
Labels:
EMDR REM EYE MOVEMENT
"EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy has emerged as a procedure to be reckoned with in psychology. Almost a million people have been treated. Also, further research appears to support the remarkable claims madefor EMDR therapy."
Reported in The Washington Post, July 21, 1995
In 1995, the American Psychological Association Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) initiated a project to determine the degree to which therapeutic methods were supported by solid empirical evidence. Independent reviewers placed EMDR on the list of "efficacious and empirically validated treatments."
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a non-drug, non-hypnosis, psychotherapy procedure discovered in 1987 by Dr. Francine Shapiro, a clinical psychologist. EMDR is a unique treatment practiced by thousands of clinicians world wide, treating a wide variety of issues with diverse populations.
Why does EMDR work?
EMDR is used to treat troubling symptoms such as anxiety, depression, guilt, anger, work-related stressors, and the effects of PTSD. It can also be used to enhance emotional resources such as negative self-esteem, lack of confidence, heighten learning and enhance personal performance. Science has not offered a conclusive answer as to why EMDR works but there have been extensive studies and continued research which is now beginning to point out how information is processed in the brain.
The model for EMDR presumes that everyone has the internal information processing system that is psychologically geared to move toward a state of mental health, just as the body is physiologically geared to heal itself. When something happens to us it bothers us. We think about it, we talk about it, we sometimes dream about it, and suddenly it doesn't bother us any longer. Our internal information system takes the information and processes it to an adaptive resolution.
It is theorized that when a traumatic or disturbing incident occurs, our natural internal system becomes unbalanced. The perception that exists at the time of the incident, whether seen, heard, felt, or thought, sends sensations to the brain that may end up locked in the nervous system. This can cause the system to be unbalanced; thoughts, feelings, and sensations remain in the memory network and continue to be triggered from either an internal or external stimulus creating unwanted feelings or behaviors.
EMDR appears to stimulate the normal brain processing of traumatic emotional experiences that have become locked in the nervous system. There is evidence that there is a relationship between EMDR processing and Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
EMDR and REM
In 1953 the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep led scientists to understand that there is a mentally active period in which dreaming occurs. Before the 1950s, most scientists thought of sleep as an unchanging, dormant period of little interest. At that time, hardly anything was known about sleep, dreaming, or the brain’s processing of information and memories.
Scientists found that rather than fleeting events, dreams vary in length according to the length of REM period. They then divided non-REM sleep into four stages, accounting for about 75 percent of total sleep. In each stage, brain waves become progressively larger and slower, and sleep becomes deeper. After reaching stage 4, the deepest period, the pattern reverses and sleep becomes progressively lighter until REM sleep, the most active period occurs. This cycle typically occurs about once every 90 minutes in humans.
Scientists also found that brain activity during REM sleep begins in the pons, a structure in the brain stem, and neighboring midbrain regions. The pons sends signals to the thalamus and to the cerebral cortex that is responsible for most thought processes.
More recently it was discovered that REM sleep is linked to our ability to learn and remember. While it is often true that we dream throughout the night, sometimes while in deep sleep, the sleep marked by slow EEG waves, during which the body repairs itself, releasing a growth hormone. The brain cycles through REM sleep about four to six times a night, each time marked by irregular breathing, increased heart rate and brain temperature, general physiological arousal.
Mind Picture
The first REM cycle follows ninety minutes of slow-wave deep sleep and lasts about ten minutes. REM cycles lengthen though the night and the dreams in them get more bizarre and detailed like wacky movies. REM dreams tend to be uniformly more emotional and memorable than non-REM ones. One of the most interesting aspects of REM sleep is that, for its duration, we are paralyzed from the neck down, and our threshold for sensory input is raised, so that external stimuli rarely reach and wake us. At that point, the brain is soaked in acetylcholine, which seems to stimulate nerve cells while it strips muscles of tone and tension. At the same time, serotonin levels plummet.
It is also understood that a narrative structure is forming in the neocortex, our meaning maker, as it creates stories out of the neuronal chaos. These stories are the clues to our inner self. It is interesting to note that when brains are scanned during dreaming, researchers find that the frontal lobes, which integrate information, are shut down, and the brain is driven by the emotional centers processing information through the amygdala, through the hippocampus and into the hypothalamus. The amygdala transforms sensory stimuli into emotional and hormonal signals that control emotional response. The hippocampus creates association to the information being processed and the hypothalamus regulates motivated behavior. The keen relationship between the REM sleep cycles and the information processing mechanisms of the brain suggests this to be the foundation upon which the efficacy of the EMDR protocol sustains itself.
Reported in The Washington Post, July 21, 1995
In 1995, the American Psychological Association Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) initiated a project to determine the degree to which therapeutic methods were supported by solid empirical evidence. Independent reviewers placed EMDR on the list of "efficacious and empirically validated treatments."
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a non-drug, non-hypnosis, psychotherapy procedure discovered in 1987 by Dr. Francine Shapiro, a clinical psychologist. EMDR is a unique treatment practiced by thousands of clinicians world wide, treating a wide variety of issues with diverse populations.
Why does EMDR work?
EMDR is used to treat troubling symptoms such as anxiety, depression, guilt, anger, work-related stressors, and the effects of PTSD. It can also be used to enhance emotional resources such as negative self-esteem, lack of confidence, heighten learning and enhance personal performance. Science has not offered a conclusive answer as to why EMDR works but there have been extensive studies and continued research which is now beginning to point out how information is processed in the brain.
The model for EMDR presumes that everyone has the internal information processing system that is psychologically geared to move toward a state of mental health, just as the body is physiologically geared to heal itself. When something happens to us it bothers us. We think about it, we talk about it, we sometimes dream about it, and suddenly it doesn't bother us any longer. Our internal information system takes the information and processes it to an adaptive resolution.
It is theorized that when a traumatic or disturbing incident occurs, our natural internal system becomes unbalanced. The perception that exists at the time of the incident, whether seen, heard, felt, or thought, sends sensations to the brain that may end up locked in the nervous system. This can cause the system to be unbalanced; thoughts, feelings, and sensations remain in the memory network and continue to be triggered from either an internal or external stimulus creating unwanted feelings or behaviors.
EMDR appears to stimulate the normal brain processing of traumatic emotional experiences that have become locked in the nervous system. There is evidence that there is a relationship between EMDR processing and Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
EMDR and REM
In 1953 the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep led scientists to understand that there is a mentally active period in which dreaming occurs. Before the 1950s, most scientists thought of sleep as an unchanging, dormant period of little interest. At that time, hardly anything was known about sleep, dreaming, or the brain’s processing of information and memories.
Scientists found that rather than fleeting events, dreams vary in length according to the length of REM period. They then divided non-REM sleep into four stages, accounting for about 75 percent of total sleep. In each stage, brain waves become progressively larger and slower, and sleep becomes deeper. After reaching stage 4, the deepest period, the pattern reverses and sleep becomes progressively lighter until REM sleep, the most active period occurs. This cycle typically occurs about once every 90 minutes in humans.
Scientists also found that brain activity during REM sleep begins in the pons, a structure in the brain stem, and neighboring midbrain regions. The pons sends signals to the thalamus and to the cerebral cortex that is responsible for most thought processes.
More recently it was discovered that REM sleep is linked to our ability to learn and remember. While it is often true that we dream throughout the night, sometimes while in deep sleep, the sleep marked by slow EEG waves, during which the body repairs itself, releasing a growth hormone. The brain cycles through REM sleep about four to six times a night, each time marked by irregular breathing, increased heart rate and brain temperature, general physiological arousal.
Mind Picture
The first REM cycle follows ninety minutes of slow-wave deep sleep and lasts about ten minutes. REM cycles lengthen though the night and the dreams in them get more bizarre and detailed like wacky movies. REM dreams tend to be uniformly more emotional and memorable than non-REM ones. One of the most interesting aspects of REM sleep is that, for its duration, we are paralyzed from the neck down, and our threshold for sensory input is raised, so that external stimuli rarely reach and wake us. At that point, the brain is soaked in acetylcholine, which seems to stimulate nerve cells while it strips muscles of tone and tension. At the same time, serotonin levels plummet.
It is also understood that a narrative structure is forming in the neocortex, our meaning maker, as it creates stories out of the neuronal chaos. These stories are the clues to our inner self. It is interesting to note that when brains are scanned during dreaming, researchers find that the frontal lobes, which integrate information, are shut down, and the brain is driven by the emotional centers processing information through the amygdala, through the hippocampus and into the hypothalamus. The amygdala transforms sensory stimuli into emotional and hormonal signals that control emotional response. The hippocampus creates association to the information being processed and the hypothalamus regulates motivated behavior. The keen relationship between the REM sleep cycles and the information processing mechanisms of the brain suggests this to be the foundation upon which the efficacy of the EMDR protocol sustains itself.
Another way to conceptualize this is to picture the cognitive abilities residing in the left hemisphere of the brain and the emotional content residing in the right hemisphere. When synchronization of the hemispheres is disturbed, thoughts are significantly less integrated with feelings. The athlete becomes a victim of their emotions, without appropriate balancing cognitions. EMDR physiologically accomplishes a rebalancing, which then restores the previous level of performance and fosters enhanced performance in the future. It should be noted that each team and athlete has distinct individual performance requirements. The use of EMDR allows addressing the individual experience, interpretation of that experience, and reprocessing of the information by utilizing the individual athlete's experiences and individual cognitions in order to achieve a more effective outcome.
