Most of the time, your body routinely manages new information and experiences without you being aware of it. However, when something out of the ordinary occurs and you are traumatized by an overwhelming event (e.g. a car accident) or by being repeatedly subjected to distress (e.g. childhood neglect), your natural coping mechanism can become overloaded. This overloading can result in disturbing experiences remaining frozen in your brain or being "unprocessed". Such unprocessed memories and feelings are stored in the limbic system of your brain in a "raw" and emotional form, rather than in a verbal “story” mode.

 

This limbic system maintains traumatic memories in an isolated memory network that is associated with emotions and physical sensations, which are disconnected from the brain’s cortex where we use language to store memories. The limbic system’s traumatic memories can be continually triggered when you experience events similar to the difficult experiences you have been through. Often the memory itself is long forgotten, but the painful feelings such as anxiety, panic, anger or despair are continually triggered in the present. Your ability to live in the present and learn from new experiences can therefore become inhibited. EMDR helps create the connections between your brain’s memory networks, enabling your brain to process the traumatic memory in a very natural way.

 

Memory reconsolidation is a critical process that occurs when memories are recalled and then stored again in an updated form. During an EMDR session, when an individual recalls a traumatic memory, the memory is retrieved from long-term storage. The bilateral stimulation used in EMDR therapy disrupts the consolidation process, allowing for the memory to be reprocessed and integrated in a new way. This reprocessing leads to a decrease in emotional distress and the development of more adaptive beliefs and perceptions.

 

How does this work? Trauma often causes us to cling to beliefs about ourselves and the world that are not functional in day to day life. The powerful experience of trauma blocks our ability to reason and grow past our experience. EMDR allows the client to question these entrenched beliefs and create beliefs more aligned with how we want to live.Here are some brain facts about the impact of EMDR.

 

Research has shown that memory reconsolidation can lead to significant changes in the neural networks associated with traumatic memories. Through the process of reconsolidation, the connections between the emotional centers of the brain, such as the amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex, responsible for cognitive processing, are strengthened and modified. This rewiring of the brain allows for the creation of new neural pathways that support adaptive responses to distressing memories, ultimately leading to a reduction in symptoms and an improved overall well-being.

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(Source: Kimberley Perlin.com/Behavioural Health Resources; llc)