EMDR method is a structured treatment process, which is performed in 8 basic phases. It is primarily aimed at processing past stressful or traumatic experiences, which may have led to a host of symptoms and problems.
The patient and therapist aim to process present situations, which trigger dysfunctional beliefs, emotions and physical symptoms, while the treatment concludes with the establishment of positive behavioral patterns for the future, laying with this treatment cycle the foundations for recovery of mental health.
Στη θεωρεία Adaptive Information Processing, στην οποία βασίζεται η ψυχοθεραπευτική μέθοδος EMDR, δίνεται ιδιαίτερη σημασία στη θεωρία προσκόλλησης. Ο τύπος των πρωταρχικών σχέσεων στη ζωή μας, όχι μόνο καθορίζει πολλά απο τα χαρακτηριστικά μας ως ενήλικες αλλά και τους τρόπους που σχετιζόμαστε με τους γύρω μας. Εξίσου σημαντικό είναι το να κατανοήσουμε το ρόλο που παίζουν στο μέλλον μας, οι σχέσεις προσκόλλησης που δημιουργούμε στα παιδικά μας χρόνια. Αναζητώντας την ικανότητα ενός ατόμου να αντεπεξέλθει στις δυσκολίες, ένα από τα βασικά στοιχεία που διερευνούμε, είναι το κατά πόσο είχε ασφαλείς σχέσεις προσκόλλησης. Κι αυτό γιατί από εκεί μπορεί ένας άνθρωπος να αντλήσει δύναμη για να βοηθήσει τον εαυτό του. Από εκεί μπορεί να βρει θετικές αναπαραστάσεις, τις οποίες έχει ενσωματώσει και να τις χρησιμοποιήσει. Αναπαραστάσεις για το ποιος είναι, για το πως είναι οι άλλοι, για το πως είναι οι ανθρώπινες σχέσεις. Η απουσία ασφαλών σχέσεων προσκόλλησης στα παιδικά χρόνια, είναι επιβαρυντικός παράγοντας για τη θεραπεία ενός τραυματισμένου ψυχικά ατόμου.
The past memories that disturb us can be stored in the brain in isolation, locked into the nervous system with the original images, sounds, thoughts and emotions involved. The old material keeps firing again and again. This prevents understanding / healing from taking place. In another part of your brain, you already have most of the information you need to solve the problem, just that the two can not be connected. When EMDR starts, a connection takes place. New information can come to mind and solve the old problem. This can happen spontaneously in the REM phase of sleep, when eye movements help process subconscious material (Shapiro, F. 2001).
The therapeutic process consists of specific protocols, while a key element is the distal (bilateral) sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, tactile), which are a novelty of the method. During the treatment phases the patient focuses his attention on stressful memories, while at the same time he is called to watch these transcendental stimuli. Bilateral sensory stimuli enhance associative processes, with the result that the patient experiences changes in cognitive, emotional, neurophysiological and physical senses.
EMDR therapy has successfully helped more than one million people with psychological problems who have had some kind of traumatic experience as their source.
The cause of a traumatic experience can be any real stressful event, such as war, captivity, natural disaster, violent attack, accident, physical or verbal abuse, loss of a loved one, serious illness. Francine Shapiro argues that EMDR can help a person mentally overcome any stressful event or situation that they feel is beyond their mental endurance and inner strengths. In a safe therapeutic context, with the help of the specialist, the patient can overcome the turmoil, pain, or psychological shock he experienced, whether it is a single traumatic event or multiple traumatic events that lasted even years.
The goal of the EMDR method is “to transform a dysfunctional assimilation of a traumatic experience into a functional one within a safe therapeutic context. It is not enough just to eliminate the symptoms and to extinguish any dependent reactions (conditioning), mainly it aims at the processing of the negative experience, or the dysfunctional thoughts and emotions, on a psychological, physical and neurophysiological level ".
Apart from cases of post-traumatic disorders of all kinds, the EMDR method is successfully applied in phobias, panic attacks and anxiety disorders, in depression, addictions, obsessive-compulsive disorders, but also in cases of chronic pain or serious illnesses for the treatment of psychological disorders. There are also positive reports on the effectiveness of the method in personality disorders. Finally, it can be successfully applied to performance enhancements of athletes, actors and performers.
The EMDR method is performed only by trained mental health specialists (psychologists, psychiatrists) and requires a basic psychotherapeutic training, while its proper application requires considerable clinical experience. It is performed in individual psychotherapeutic sessions and is applied to adults, adolescents and children.
