EMDR Therapy: Can It Heal Your Trauma? (Part 1)
episode
RECOVERable: Mental Health and Addiction Experts Answer Your Questions
52 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 23 days ago
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is EMDR therapy and how does it differ from traditional talk therapy?
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You don't want to do EMDR on your own because having that therapist there to be with you and your emotions in this process is absolutely critical to the healing.
Licensed clinical psychologist and trauma expert Dr. Jenny Hughes joins us to explore how brain spotting and EMDR help to process traumatic memories.
EMDR is such a cool intervention because you can share as much or as little with me, the therapist, and still have really powerful and profound outcomes.
So does EMDR make you relive the trauma? It depends. Welcome to Recoverable. I'm your host, Terry McGuire. So have you ever talked a problem or a condition to death, but the feeling you have from it is still stuck in your body? Today, we're joined by trauma therapist and psychologist, Dr. Jenny Hughes, to talk about two types of therapy that heal the parts of your brain that words alone can't reach. Today, we'll be learning about eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, and And next week, we're going to drive into the lesser-known but growing practice of brain spotting. Welcome, Dr. Hughes. Thank you so much for having me. Delighted. I look forward to learning about this because it's new to me, and I assume there are going to be some viewers who also don't know a lot about it, but it has great reputation.
This is about answering the top questions on the internet, and it was very interesting researching EMDR because there were two... landscapes that dominated the searches. And one is the mechanism. How does it actually work? And the second is the experience. And the main question around that is sort of things like, am I going to lose control? So Google searchers focused on the cost and clinical effectiveness. TikTok and YouTube audiences were highly concerned with the physical sensation of and the hangover effect after a session. So we will get into all of that. But we now start with a lightning round of myth or fact, just so we can quickly address some of the misconceptions around different therapies. So myth or fact, EMDR is a form of hypnosis where the therapist controls your mind.
Myth. 100%. Hypnosis therapy is actually a very well-researched and evidence-based intervention. And... There are certainly some similarities on the surface when you're looking at the two from outside. But in EMDR, we're not trying to hypnotize anyone at all. And the therapist never wants to be in control of anyone. No therapist that's ideally and ethically not their job. In EMDR, yes, we use bilateral simulation, which may be through eye movements. It can be through tapping. It can be through sounds, any combination of those. And especially when you see the eye movements or someone going like this or a light bar, it can certainly look like they're trying to hypnotize you with a ticking clock or something.
But that is not the goal at all. And the therapist never has control over the client. The client is In the driver's seat, they are the ones that are in charge at every single step of the way.
All right. Myth or fact, Dr. Hughes? EMDR works by mimicking the brain's natural state during REM sleep.
Myth and fact. So that was one of the early explanations of what's going on with the bilateral movement of the eyes. But we now know that there's a lot more going on than just that.
Myth or fact, you have to talk about every painful detail of your trauma for EMDR to work.
Absolute myth. You actually don't even have to share any details about your trauma with your EMDR therapist for it to be incredibly effective.
That is going to be a relief to people. Myth or fact, EMDR can actually erase a bad memory so that you don't remember it ever happened.
Myth. So it certainly changes our experience of a memory. It can feel like it's further away. It's not as intense, but we can never erase our memories no matter how much we wish we could.
Myth or fact, you can feel physically exhausted or hung over after an EMDR session.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is EMDR therapy and how does it differ from traditional talk therapy?
0:00–5:38
2
How does trauma become ‘stuck’ in the brain and how does EMDR ‘unstick’ it?
5:38–12:25
3
What are the common myths about EMDR and what does the science actually say?
12:25–19:39
4
What are the eight phases of an EMDR session and how are they structured?
19:39–26:33
5
Can EMDR be used for anxiety, depression, and complex PTSD?
26:33–32:49
6
Why should you never try to do EMDR on your own and how can you find a certified therapist?
32:49–38:37
7
How does EMDR compare to brain‑spotting and other bottom‑up therapies?
38:37–46:05
8
What are the risks, side‑effects, and ‘hang‑over’ experiences after an EMDR session?
46:05–52:08
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from RECOVERable: Mental Health and Addiction Experts Answer Your Questions
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