Memory is an integral part of the identity of every human being. We perceive ourselves as unique and individual beings because we carry an autobiography, a collection of moments and experiences to which only we have access; Others can only know its content from what we communicate to them.
However, in the same way that memories are the raw material with which we build our own identity and self-concept, they can also give rise to psychological problems if we do not internalize them adequately in our memory system. We have the clearest example of this in traumas, although it also occurs in a similar way in many anxiety disorders, in eating disorders, and in all those psychopathologies that lead us to experience our past and our idea of the future in a distressing way. “I”.
Faced with these types of alterations, resources have emerged that propose intervention in the way we process memories and the emotions linked to them. One of the most useful is EMDR therapy; Let’s see what its main benefits are and in what cases it is helpful when a patient goes to the psychologist due to problems related to emotions and anxiety.
The term “EMDR” is actually an acronym for the English term “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.” This treatment technique in the field of mental health proposes a bridge between psychotherapy and non-invasive neuropsychological intervention (that is, without surgery or medication), since it aims to modify the neuronal connections that serve as the biological foundation for the preservation of memories that, due to their strong painful or anxiety-inducing emotional charge, have not been adequately integrated into the memory system.
That is The main objective of EMDR therapy is not to eliminate memories, mental images or intrusive thoughts that make us feel bad, but to reformulate them so that when they emerge in our consciousness they do not have such a disruptive effect in the form of post-traumatic stress, panic attacks, self-harm, etc.
How is this achieved? Through the scheduled stimulation of neuronal networks that are associated or overlap with those neurons responsible for the reactivation of those memories or problematic mental contents. For example, by having the patient imagine or remember those mental contents while moving the eyes through predetermined movement patterns (hence the name “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing”), or through bilateral auditory stimulation or tapping on the knees. .
Top 5 Benefits of EMDR Therapy
This is a brief summary of the positive aspects of this form of psychotherapy.
1. Helps you stop seeing those emotionally painful mental contents as something to avoid
The fact of stopping involvement in behavioral patterns aimed at avoiding certain thoughts or stimuli makes the person’s emotional well-being greatly improved. For example, it helps the patient stop wasting time trying to avoid passing through certain places, so that they can interact with all types of people without fear of whether they will activate a traumatic memory, and it even reduces the likelihood of resorting to harmful behaviors that They were used as a form of escape, like drug use or self-harm.
2. It allows you to distance yourself and relativize limiting beliefs
Through EMDR therapy it is easier to stop experiencing the beliefs that always limit us from the same type of “mental routes”, seeing them from other perspectives and adopting a more distanced and critical vision in general.
3. It can be easily applied to very young boys and girls
Because this form of therapeutic intervention does not rely heavily on the use of language or the expression of abstract ideas, young children have less difficulty engaging in it.
In people whose main problem is trauma, the fact of being able to access those memories without suffering intense and disruptive emotional crises It represents a very rapid improvement in your general mental health.
5. It is a useful resource for anxiety disorders in general
Although EMDR was developed primarily as a therapy for trauma, it has also been shown to be effective against anxiety disorders in general, such as GAD, panic disorder or phobias, because in most cases they are based on the problems in accessing certain mental contents linked to a reality or an imaginary fact.
What are the scientific keys on which EMDR is based?
These are the main scientific principles on which EMDR therapy is based.
1. Emotional memory follows its own logic
Memory is, in reality, a set of memory systems that work in a coordinated manner but also have parallel systems. Therefore, we can speak of an emotional memory that It is relatively unrelated to language-based memories.
For example, some people with brain injuries or malformations around the limbic system (the part most linked to emotions in the brain) may be able to recognize the faces of their loved ones when they are in front of them, but they “feel” that they cannot. It is them, who are facing a person who is pretending to be their mother, father or partner.
EMDR therapy intervenes fully in emotional memory, under the premise that it is one thing to be able to describe a memory and another thing to experience it normally.
2. Avoiding anxiety-generating thoughts is never the solution
No psychopathology associated with trauma and anxiety can be overcome through avoidance. However, breaking this dynamic of trying to completely distance yourself from certain memories or thoughts can be very complicated, since it requires effort and a certain tolerance for discomfort. EMDR therapy makes things easier by immersing the person in these mental contents in a very gradual way and at the same time, a part of your attention is fixed on the stimulation that comes to you from the present moment, so that you do not have to experience it all at once. In this sense, it is similar to systematic desensitization, a therapeutic resource widely used in the treatment of phobias.
3. Knowing how to deal with painful memories is learning to reintegrate them into the experience of the present
As psychologist Elizabeth Loftus demonstrated, memories are never elements anchored in the past; They are always phenomena of the present, and therefore they transform as time passes and we integrate new elements into our way of living and reinterpreting them. EMDR therapy It makes a more functional and adaptive reinterpretation framework emerge alongside those painful memories.
4. Less language-based emotional management processes are easier for children
Finally, we must not forget that EMDR therapy is very easy to apply to boys and girls, and it can even be presented to them as an exercise to do while telling them a story, since it is based on an experience linked to the stimuli of the present. , and not only in introspection.
Are you looking for professional psychological assistance?
If you are interested in starting a psychotherapy process in which you can count on EMDR intervention and other therapeutic resources, contact me.
My name is Luisa Ramirez I am a psychologist and coach, and I serve people of all ages online by video call or in face-to-face sessions in my office located in Seville.
