EMDR Therapy, Thank You Prince Harry
Prince Harry became a huge advocate for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) therapy. Who would have known that a royal from England would help introduce the public to a type of therapy that helps to manage an array of symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
While in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry is seen doing bi-lateral tapping on his arms while simultaneously moving his eyes back and forth. This technique helps to reprocess how the brain stores traumatic memories or intense emotions. In the interview, the therapist states, “It changed the way the experience is stored”.
By doing bi-lateral movements, i.e. tapping one shoulder and then the next, or darting eyes back and forth (along with the guidance of the therapist) memories are stored in a new, different way than they were initially stored.
Prince Harry also uses the audio therapy of humming to increase the strength of the EMDR during treatment; this can be done with headphones and certain music that moves bi-laterally through the headphones in the session.
What Happens During EMDR Therapy?
When describing EMDR to potential clients, I educate on how the bilateral movement is the same as when our bodies are in REM sleep; the time of reprocessing and recovering during the night but by doing it with a therapist they can process it in real time and make changes to the emotional connection of that memory. When a person experiences trauma, part of the mind and body are stuck in that moment. Being able to review it and process it differently gives the person freedom to let go of that immense pain and move forward. By doing EMDR therapy, the body can loosen up tension and pain that it’s unknowingly been holding on to for years.
When I do EMDR therapy with clients, I do different motions for “erasing” of the negative feelings associated with the trauma through hand movements. When we focus on the “ bad”, I’ll do large sweeping motions with my hand and arm bi-laterally to “erase” these connections. I have clients imagine I’m holding an eraser in my hand as we do these movements and process them together.
During this phase of the exercise the trauma can be brought back up and cause a strong emotional reaction. This is the heavy work of EMDR, asking clients to recall and sometimes relive these traumatic experience but with the support of myself there with them.
Before starting this part of EMDR, I ask the clients to rate how distressing this memory, emotion or trigger is for them. We use a simple scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the highest level of distress they’ve experienced). These scales are subjective but often these memories are ranging from 8-10 in level of distress. I also ask my client to connect the memory/emotion to a negative belief they have about themselves, which is also connected to the incident. By connecting the feeling or thought to a negative belief, a “thread” is created in the brain, connecting their memories of other instances where they also felt this way. The related belief, which shows up in several areas of one’s life, is now connected to the thread, and thus connected to the reprocessing of that stored memory.
In processing these memories again, one is likely to experience strong emotional reactions such as crying, shaking, and anxiety. This makes their “distress” score higher than when we first started. I remind my clients that sometimes things get worse before they get better. Thankfully, we can prepare for this reaction and also deal with it in a healthy way. We do this by implementing additional “grounding techniques” as needed, when overwhelm occurs. We work through this traumatic experience they went through and watch the brain follow a thread connecting it to other things that has happened to them.
Ending sessions of EMDR I always try to focus on strengthening positive beliefs that have unfortunately gone quiet over the years. I tell clients I want to awaken their inner cheerleader that used to fight against these negative intrusive thoughts but became quieter due to too many of them coming in over the years. (Intrusive thoughts are negative beliefs one has about themselves that beat them down over time, sometimes in their own voice and sometimes in someone else’s).
Typically, we can’t do too many sets of this adaptive strengthening technique because the trauma typically requires a lot of the work in session but at the end this technique helps to remind the client of their inner strength. For this portion of the therapy, I do the same types of movement as Prince Harry demonstrated in the video. I like for clients to naturally feel calmer when getting into this position and some have used it as a means to self-soothe when in stressful situations outside of session.
During this adaptive phase I will repeat sentences to them about positive traits that they have that I see in them that just need extra support for them to believe. Initially, the inner voice will fight with me saying these things aren’t true because they’ve been conditioned against believing it so long. Eventually, they retrain their brain to tell them this naturally and regularly and it makes fighting the depressive or anxious thoughts a lot easier.
In this part of the EMDR therapy the client may start at a 1/7 for believing this statement example: I am worthy of happiness, and in the end of that session may move up to a 3 or 4 out of 7 but it’s still progress from the starting point. Eventually, the goal is to get them to completely agree that they are worthy of happiness. This reprogramming (out with the old and in with the new) takes work and practice. I remind clients that for a few hours after session, their brain is still working hard on these connections and to hydrate, be kind to themselves, avoid substances (which can slow the reprocessing) and that it may exhaust them.
How You Might Feel During an EMDR Therapy Session
I’ve had some incredibly strong clients that have been through many difficult things and their fighting spirit keeps them moving forward no matter how hard life has been for them. By doing trauma work, it opens them up to the pain and rawness of what they’ve experienced. We take breaks when needed, implement talk therapy and other techniques as needed and provide support through coping skills, grounding techniques and support systems to help through the most painful parts.
If a session is particularly rough or painful, the homework I assign is self-care focused like taking a bath, going for a walk or enjoying childlike activities like drawing with sidewalk chalk outside with a friend. This process can be slow moving and take multiple sessions to work through some difficult areas but I’ve witnessed it do wonders on people with difficult childhoods. The brain is an amazing thing that sometimes needs a little extra help handling difficulties and that’s what I try to assist with.
Thank you Prince Harry for your vulnerability and strength, helping to normalize getting help for mental health and opening the world’s eyes to an effective method to treating trauma.
Missy Davis, MA, LPC
EMDR Therapist
Collaborative: Psychotherapy & Self-Discovery
888 W. Big Beaver Rd., Suite 780
Troy, MI. 48084
March 2021