EMDR Therapy Austin
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidenced based and effective therapy modality that reduces distress from traumatic memories in the nervous system. It mimics the REM cycle during sleep (by using bilateral stimulation), which usually allows the body to process what has occurred throughout the day. Sometimes these experiences get “stuck” due to the overwhelming nature of the events. EMDR moves the traumatic experience in the nervous system in order to process, desensitize, and access adaptive thoughts in our frontal lobe.
Leading global health organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, recognize EMDR as an effective treatment.
Who is EMDR appropriate for?
EMDR can be done with children as young as three. It requires some initial resourcing to ensure the client has enough adaptive material to draw from and resources to support the client between session. Clients with complex trauma and dissociation may require more resourcing and require clinicians who are trained in using EMDR with dissociation. If there is significant substance use, care is taken to determine readiness for trauma processing.
What does an EMDR session look like?
There are Eight Phases of EMDR:
History Taking & Treatment Planning-
A full history is gathered and a collaborative plan is made about what the client would like to desensitize. This can be memories, feeling states, triggers, current and future concerns and fears.
Preparation-
The therapist explains the process and what to expect. Resourcing is implemented to allow the client a sense of agency and techniques to cope between sessions should disturbance arise. We often utilize IFS/parts work during this phase which can be considered extended resourcing. Gaining consent and collaboration with parts can facilitate a smoother desensitization process.
Assessment-
A target is identified, along with associated beliefs, feelings, images, and emotions about the event. The event distress (SUDS) is measured as well as the validity of the positive cognitions (VOC).
Desensitization-
Bilateral stimulation (eye movement, sound, tapping) is applied to begin reducing the target distress. While processing, new images, thoughts, feelings or sensations may emerge.
Installation-
Once the distress has been processed, the positive belief is installed and strengthened until it feels true.
Body Scan-
The client notices how their body feels now with the new cognition to ensure all physical distress and processed. Any remaining distress is then processed.
Closure-
Whether the target is fully processed or not, the therapist will guide the client through a closing exercise to return them to a state of calm before ending the session.
Reassessment
The original target is checked to ensure no new material has arisen and the event remains neutral or even positive. If new material has come up, it is processed again with stages 3-8.
Does EMDR require talking about trauma?
Verbally processing the trauma is not required.
Is EMDR effective for PTSD?
Absolutely! We know now that a diagnosis of PTSD is not a life sentence. Material can be processed so there is no longer distress around the memories and people can heal to the point of no longer meeting the criteria for PTSD.
Can EMDR help Complex Trauma?
Yes. One way of thinking of dissociation is “to not know”. Even when people are unaware of dissociation, EMDR helps to shine a light on how our system of parts may have compartmentalized trauma and knowing in order to protect us. EMDR helps to increase knowing across all parts that want to know what has happened to us. It reprocessed the trauma so less dissociation may be needed to protect parts from knowing. The goal is not to take away dissociation completely, we all need it as a tool. But to be able to be present when you want to be present, be able to trust yourself/feelings/judgement, see things more clearly to make informed decisions, connect with others in safer ways, and help the body know when it is safe can completely change quality of life for the better.
Can EMDR help Anxiety?
Yes. EMDR can address any affective state, including: anxiety, panic, depression, guilt, grief, anger and more. Anxiety is an often a hyper-arousal stated or flight/fight/flee/fix. Processing this state can bring the body back into the window tolerance. The goal is never to extinguish all anxiety (it is a tool to help us better understand our needs and make choices about our behavior) but rather to be able to work with it as opposed to feeling that it is controlling us.
Can EMDR help with Substance Use or Addiction?
Yes, there are specific EMDR protocols to help reduce cravings for and associations with substances (for example the brain pairing your morning coffee with a cigarette). EMDR addresses the underlying trauma that lead to substance use, the associated shame, consequences, and negative believes surrounding the substance use. EMDR also increases the window of tolerance and reduces triggers so you may be less likely to reach for a substance to self soothe.
Can EMDR help with Dissociation?
EMDR can be used in the treatment of dissociation, but treatment may look different from EMDR for a single-incident trauma. People with complex trauma snd dissociation generally benefit from a longer preparation and stabilization phase before trauma memories are processed. This allows for for adaptive information processing, felt sense of stabilization and safety, and more cohesiveness around readiness for EMDR. Dissociation is a normal protective mechanism that all humans have and the goal is never to be rid of it completely. Instead, EMDR is used to help the brain and body to discern when they are safe and when they are not to allow for more presence, less overwhelm, and more capacity to move through life’s ups and downs.
Can EMDR help with Neurodivergence?
Neurodivergence is either innate (examples: born with Autism, childhood OCD, Down syndrome, etc due to genetics) or acquired (examples: complex trauma, brain injury, etc due to an event). The genetic component of neurodivergence is fixed and life long (example: you can’t outgrow or change Autism), however, there are aspects of life that can be improved by EMDR. EMDR can help someone cope with the impact living with neurodivergence has on them (thoughts, feelings, trauma, emotional regulation, capacity, etc). EMDR can be used on specific sensory triggers (example for mysophonia), relational trauma, fears around communication differences, and frustrations around executive functioning differences. Lastly, EMDR is often used for acceptance and compassion for one own neurodivergence and brain/nervous system differences.
What happens before trauma processing?
As mentioned above in the stages of EMDR, we will engage in history taking, treatment planning, resource building and preparation prior reprocessing the trauma. Once trauma processing has begun, clients can choose to stop at any time if needed and there are accommodations to make processing feel more accessible.
Is online EMDR available?
Yes, at Align Therapy and EMDR we do all of our EMDR virtually and have been doing it this way since 2020.
Who provides EMDR at Align Therapy and EMDR?
Both Julie Jones and Steve Jones are EMDR trained, Julie is EMDR certified (see below).
What training/certification do Julie and Steve have?
Both Julie and Steve have complete the basic EMDR training which incudes 20 hours instructional material, 20 hours supervised practicum, and 10 hours consultation. Julie went on to acquire her Certification in EMDR which is an additional 20 hours on consultation, letters of recognition from EMDRIA approved Consultants, and required 12 EMDRIA approved CEUs (CEUs required every two years to maintain certification).