Why Does EMDR Help Trauma but Talk Therapy Doesn’t?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a very different type of therapy than traditional talk therapy. EMDR focuses on recalling a past distressing memory and rewriting the narrative that you tell yourself about it. Traditional talk therapy typically focuses on getting you to change how you think, feel and behave which in turn changes how you view the world. However, with traumatic memories our brains struggle to process the events that have happened with just regular REM sleep and the memory becomes like a skip in a CD. The information cannot be played and cannot be reprocessed. However, EMDR is like REM sleep while you are awake with a therapist guiding you. If you begin to get into a thought spiral the EMDR therapist can help guide you out and provide perspective.

EMDR is unique in that there is very little conversation happening between EMDR therapist and client while processing. The job of the EMDR therapist is to provide supervision and to ensure that the memories are reprocessing well and if needed provide coping tools. Traditional talk therapy does not effectively reprocess memories and can change negative beliefs over time but not nearly as quickly as EMDR. 

If you are in the Longwood, Orlando or Lake Mary area and would like EMDR services please reach out at audrey@willowtherapyframework.com