September 2018

HEALTH
Reprocessing
through brain therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and
Reprocessing (EMDR) is a brainbased
therapy, first developed for post
traumatic stress disorder, that is like
surgery on the brain without a scalpel.
It is done by having the client follow the
movement of the therapist’s hand in front
of the client’s eyes. At the same time,
the client focuses on a past trauma.
Other methods, like tapping on the legs
of the client or tick-tock sounds, can
also be used. Those trained in EMDR
can testify to the positive results that
occur after just a few one-hour sessions.
EMDR clears out negative thoughts,
images, behaviors, PTSD, stress, trauma
— just about anything and everything.
Clients on whom it has been used see
good results. It is used on people with
a full variety of traumas, fears, anxiety,
depression, and even personality
disorders.
Dream researchers from the 1960s,
who were investigating the effects
of eye movements in the waking
state, documented how during a
psychological or emotional disturbance,
rapid shifts in eye movement are
correlated with shifts in cognitive
content. What they discovered is that a
disturbance in the thoughts or feelings
in focus, pictured, or felt while the
eyes were moving back and forth at
the same time that the client-focused
inner attention on the traumatic event,
changed or neutralized negative feelings
and thoughts that caused the stress in
the subject.
EMDR processing of this trauma, the
beatings no longer have the emotional
content and traumatic effect they once
did. The client remembers that they
occurred, but looks at it objectively, as
if it were happening to someone else
or as part of a familiar movie inside the
client’s head. If a female child was raped
by her father, EMDR can neutralize the
terrible mental, emotional, and brain
disturbances caused by that act. Thus
the child would be able to tell you all
the events of the rape, but in an almost
matter-of-fact way without its traumatic
impact. The EMDR (brain) bilateral
stimulation through the concentration
of the eyes on the moving fingers of
the therapist, effects and accesses the
deep recesses of the brain, specifically,
the limbic system and the amygdala,
which contains all traumatic memories.
The amygdala is what Sigmund Freud
called “the unconscious.” Things we’ve
by Jane Statlander-Slote
forgotten or repressed through fear,
fright, and trauma can be remembered in
this way. By accessing the trauma area
of the brain, the traumatic memories
are brought into the conscious mind
and neutralized through the bilateral
brain stimulation. EMDR can delete or
greatly reduce traumatic memories and,
therefore, subjective distress. EMDR
allows the client to make adaptive beliefs
stronger and more positive.
Unlike EMDR, which works on
the amygdala and limbic system
of repressed emotionalized
memories, cognitive behavioral
therapy activates the prefrontal
cortex, which controls reason,
cerebral content, and rationality.
Clients who have trauma and
are treated only with cognitive
behavioral therapy will discuss
their trauma, but the trauma itself
will not be accessed in a deep
way so that it can be neutralized.
Jane Statlander-Slote of Mind Body
Therapeutics is a Registered Clinical
Social Worker Intern. Visit
MindBodyTherapeutics.Life.
P
After the negative thoughts are cleared
or neutralized, the client still remembers,
for example, the beatings she received
as a child from her mother; but after the
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SEPTEMBER 2018