Getting to the Roots of Trauma and EMDR
By Tonya Nowlin, LPC
Ever since March 2020, we frequently hear and speak of trauma: the trauma of COVID-19, systemic racism, and political polarization. While trauma is a ubiquitous term, it is often misunderstood—and too many of us continue to live with unprocessed trauma. Did you know that even if you’ve suffered deep, complex trauma, there are clinically proven methods of healing these wounds, so you can move forward with your life? Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a transformative, evidence-based treatment for trauma. Let’s unpack trauma and EMDR, so you can see if EMDR might be a helpful resource for you or your loved ones.
What is trauma?
One of the simplest, working definitions of trauma I have come across is that trauma is any experience or event that is too much, too soon or too fast for our nervous system to handle, especially if we can’t reach a successful resolution. Trauma does not reside in a specific event or experience, but rather, in the physiological response within your nervous system. Because of the way that trauma lodges in the body, it puts you at a greater risk for health-risk behaviors and chronic health conditions later in life, though often, people do not see this connection. Many of my clients begin therapy because of the negative impact of these health-risk behaviors, as well as somatic symptoms associated with trauma.
How does EMDR work?
When experiences from the past still carry an emotional charge, they have an impact on your central nervous system, and continue to influence present emotions, sensations, and thoughts about yourself. EMDR enables you to break through the emotional blocks that prevent you from living an adaptive and emotionally healthy life. Additionally, EMDR allows your body and mind to retrieve and “reprocess” these emotionally-charged events, which you were not able to do at that moment because it was “too much, too soon, too fast.” Another way I like to explain it: it’s like retrieving an old, misplaced file–editing it and saving it in a new location.
How on earth is that possible? Our brains possess the tools for this job, and put them to work every night in your sleep, with Rapid Eye Movement (REM). This is the stage of sleep that allows our brains to process the input from the day, and it’s essential for our health.
How does the “reprocessing” happen?
EMDR enables you to reprocess past events through bi-lateral stimulation. This can be achieved in one of three ways:
Visual: Tracking your clinician’s fingers in a swift, left-right pattern
Tactile: Self-administered tapping or drumming in a left-right sequence or holding a small vibrating device (tappers) in each hand. The tappers alternate in the same left-right sequence.
Auditory: Hearing binaural tones through headphones
All methods are effective, so you can choose the approach that works best for you. For instance: some clients who suffer from migraines may find that finger tracking causes strain on the eyes and can possibly trigger a headache, so opt for tactile or auditory.
What happens when a memory is reprocessed with EMDR?
One thing that many of my clients like about EMDR is that it is not necessary to talk about all the details of their experiences. All that is required is for a client to think about the experience or event. This inner visualization, combined with the bilateral stimulation, fires up the affected neural networks in the brain.
Once processing is complete, your recollection of an event is NOT erased, but it IS experienced differently. The past event loses the emotional and physical charge. Your brain will have “digested” the traumatic memory, so now, when you think of the experience, it’s as if you’re on a train and just watching it pass by outside.