EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a treatment modality developed in the 1980s. Since then, EMDR has been studied extensively and has shown promising outcomes for the treatment of PTSD, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, chronic pain, and many other mental health conditions and psychological challenges.

EMDR is an evidence-based treatment modality. EMDR is not a panacea for everything, and EMDR therapists should only use it with individuals if they have experience and competency in the area where the client needs help. For example, a mental health professional who has training and experience with treating OCD may use EMDR among many other modalities, such as psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy, to help someone who is struggling with OCD.

Here at MapleTree Psychotherapy Center Dubai, we tend to work with anxiety and depression in all its different colors and shapes. It may present itself anywhere from panic attacks to feeling numb with no energy. We also utilize EMDR to help people who want to heal from old childhood wounds they endured in their family of origin, as well as recent traumatic experiences, such as medical trauma, motor vehicle accidents, and other tragic events.

Why do you need to work with memories to heal anxiety, depression or trauma?

In our experience, the only way to heal from depression, anxiety and trauma is through it. The beauty of EMDR is that you will not ‘relive’ your unwanted or traumatic experiences. Instead, you will be safe in the therapist’s office (or online in a private and comfortable environment), and you will be able to see the memory as if you are looking at it on a TV screen. In other words, you will not go into the memory. This allows for wonderful processing and digestion of material that, at the time those experiences occurred, left you too overwhelmed to handle.

What does an EMDR session look like?

A typical EMDR session is 45 minutes to 90 minutes long, depending on what you and your therapist have agreed. At MapleTree Center, we keep our sessions to 50 minutes and, in some cases, we will recommend a longer session if we think it will help.

You and your therapist will decide which memory or experience will be used as a target for healing. Your therapist will ask you some questions to help you prepare and vividly recall the memory. This process “charges up” the nervous system and will bring up disturbances and some distress, which is expected and normal.

Once there is a memory or memories to work with, your therapist will sit slightly closer to you and guide you to move your eyes to left and right, by following the movement of their fingers. These eye movements are similar to those during REM sleep, when your eyes move left and right, as if watching a tennis match. This movement is thought to help the mind heal through a process called memory consolidation and integration. It is also a form of stimulation that can aid this process by activating left- and right-brain activity. Sometimes, instead of eye movements, your therapist may use tapping to provide left-right stimulation.

What can you expect from an EMDR session?

There is a whole lot of preparation involved before eye movements and tapping to process past experiences. At first, there may be some distress and lots of emotions that will clear out of your system. After one or sometimes a couple of EMDR sessions, people begin to experience relief. It typically helps people think of their past from a completely different perspective. EMDR helps you tap into your own natural inner healing intelligence. Our mind and body are wired toward healing. When we get a physical wound, it naturally wants to heal. Unprocessed trauma can become like an infection, which means it needs a bit of support before the mind can heal. In other words, EMDR can be like clearing out the infection.

Alternatives to EMDR

EMDR is not the only way to work with trauma and distress. Most work in good therapy is related to working on psychological distress that is influenced by past experiences and relational patterns. Your EMDR therapist may, for example, choose to focus on helping you gain resources that heal attachment wounds. Distressing symptoms can be reduced without having to process trauma directly. Strengthening your inner resources not only relieves mental suffering but also allows you to develop a healthier inner narrative. Another gentler way of addressing trauma is to use the mindfulness-based RAIN protocol. 

Whichever approach works best for you, you mustn’t work on your trauma without a trained and experienced therapist by your side. We suffer when we experience difficult experiences and emotions alone. Your therapist will guide you through the emotionally challenging work and ensure you have access to internal and external resources to come through at the other end without getting overwhelmed.

How do you know if EMDR is right for you? 

You can learn more about EMDR on EMDRIA.org. There are also videos and examples of EMDR available online. Please don’t try it yourself, as you will need a trained therapist to guide you through it. There are many nuances and important steps that come before, during, and after EMDR therapy to avoid harm and achieve the best results.

How do I find the right EMDR therapist?

EMDRIA.org has a listserv of trained therapists worldwide whom you can connect with to find the right therapist for you. Locally, in the UAE, you can find trained EMDR therapists on Hoopfull’s directory.