Understanding EMDR Therapy
Research shows that adverse life events, or trauma, negatively impact an individual’s life. Trauma causes many mental and physical health symptoms and commonly plays a role in substance abuse. This is true of both childhood trauma and trauma experienced as an adult, and while the symptoms vary, both physical trauma and psychological trauma negatively impact daily life as well.
Fortunately, at NorthStar Recovery Center, we offer EMDR for addiction and mental health. As a result, our clients reprocess their traumatic memories, moving forward in healing and their lives.
Exploring the Basics of EMDR Therapy
EMDR therapy combines talk therapy with specific eye movements or sounds. First, a client brings to mind the traumatic event, which can be internal remembering or external talking through the event. Then, they are asked to also pay attention to specific sounds or move their eyes in a set pattern. These sounds and eye movement patterns, combined with the accessed memory, adjust how this memory is stored. As a result, the targetted memory changes, helping clients to improve the negative impacts that have resulted from that specific memory.
Identifying How EMDR Addresses Trauma
The base concept of EMDR therapy is that traumatic memories are stored with their original emotions, physical sensations, and beliefs. It is as though they exist inside an individual’s mind in a bubble that contains the original event. This causes a person to reexperience their trauma when it is triggered, feeling the same emotions and physical sensations and bringing up the beliefs that surround it.
An example of how this impacts an individual is the flashbacks or nightmares associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals believe they are back in the original trauma, feeling and experiencing the event over and over again. The manner of storage of traumatic memories is one reason why talking about trauma is commonly not effective in healing it.
However, EMDR therapy does significantly more than bring up the trauma. Combining eye movements and sound with memories provides an avenue for reprocessing. As each memory is reprocessed, it removes the original emotions, physical sensations, and beliefs that have surrounded the memory. The result is that clients can look back on the memory and see it as a memory of trauma rather than feeling as though it is happening in the present again. Through reprocessing, clients learn from their history of trauma, integrating the lessons that are important from the events they have experienced. Essentially, EMDR can help turn their trauma into a source of strength.
EMDR for Addressing Substance Use Disorder (SUD)
Substance use disorder (SUD) and trauma are closely connected, resulting in many individuals who struggle with a history of trauma and current issues with addiction. The connection between trauma and addiction is well documented, and there are two primary theories that help to explain the relationship between them. First, it is thought that due to the negative impacts of trauma, many individuals seek substances as a way to cope, leading to addiction. Secondly, trauma causes changes in the brain. These specific changes make individuals more vulnerable to addiction.
At NorthStar Recovery Center, we have helped many clients who struggle with both trauma and addiction, and we find EMDR for addiction helpful and effective as part of the healing process. As clients begin to have lessened symptoms of their trauma, they are able to see just how much these events have impacted their challenges with substance abuse. Then, with the help of our therapist, they begin to build new patterns. All of this is aided by EMDR as it opens the opportunity to move forward by decreasing the physical and psychological symptoms of trauma.
Comprehensive EMDR Therapy at NorthStar Recovery Center
At NorthStar Recovery Center, we know that healing from substance abuse and mental health disorders is not simple. Each client that we meet has a unique story. These stories are complex and interconnected, and it requires time and effort to unwind the stories enough to understand the key root causes that have led the individual to struggle with substance abuse, addiction, and more.
As a result, we offer comprehensive EMDR therapy. Our trauma therapy programs, including EMDR, are effective for treating a variety of trauma, including:
- Childhood trauma
- Psychological trauma
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Physical trauma
- Abuse
- Complex trauma
EMDR therapy for drug addiction addresses the unique trauma that the client has experienced. It has a physical and mental impact on them, resulting in a decrease in symptoms related to their experiences. These changes have a ripple effect on their lives, and we find that clients see positive outcomes in unexpected places in a short time.
Key Features of Our EMDR Sessions
EMDR for addiction at NorthStar Recovery includes some key features that make our treatment program unique. These features help clients to find success in reprocessing their trauma and healing from addiction. As a result, EMDR therapy for drug addiction is an important part of our overall treatment program.
Working With Skilled EMDR Therapists
EMDR therapy for drug addiction has set therapeutic parameters. However, many aspects of EMDR can be tweaked and adjusted to suit the client’s needs. This includes the type of sound, eye movements, or other stimuli. However, it also includes how memory is accessed and when the stimuli are added.
At NorthStar Recovery Center, we have highly skilled therapists who run EMDR sessions. The therapist running each EMDR session has a background in trauma treatment relating to addiction. Therefore, they know how to adjust the session to make it the most effective for the client at hand. We have multiple therapists qualified for EMDR and match clients to therapists based on who can provide the best care for the client.
Multiple Sessions
EMDR therapy for addiction treatment at NorthStar Recovery includes multiple sessions. As clients go through each session, they slowly dig into the memories that are causing them challenges with addiction. Each childhood trauma memory, or psychological trauma memory they reprocess helps to decrease symptoms, change their behavior, and show them a light and a way forward.
Incorporating Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
At NorthStar Recovery, behavioral therapy is a primary method of healing and learning new skills that help clients protect their mental health and sobriety. Through EMDR, we help a client to access and change their experience of their trauma with eye movement and other stimuli. However, it takes time for clients to change their behavior around certain triggers. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can help.
CBT is a behavioral therapy that helps clients understand and connect how their thoughts, feelings, and actions impact each other. For example, experiencing anxiety can be a trigger for a client to seek out a substance. In CBT, clients learn to pause between their feeling and their actions, learning to make a different choice for themselves.
At NorthStar Recovery Center, we know that EMDR is effective and helpful for clients to heal from trauma. However, we also know that behaviors learned to compensate for trauma do not simply vanish. Therefore, we combine EMDR and CBT in order to provide clients with more tools to reprocess their trauma and make different decisions.
Stimulating Both Sides of the Brain
The brain is composed of two halves or two hemispheres. While these hemispheres are connected to a degree, they also operate in unique manners and have specific skill sets. Certain stimulation, therefore, only impacts one side of the brain. In EMDR, bilateral stimulation, or stimulating both sides of the brain, is a technique that affects both sides through eye movements, sounds, and other stimulation.
Bilateral stimulation helps the brain and body to relax. Feeling relaxation and safety during EMDR is very important, as it helps clients alter their experience of memory as they reprocess. At NorthStar Recovery Center, our therapists integrate bilateral stimulation in situations where it is helpful for clients’ recovery to be most effective.
EMDR: A Relatively Short-Term Modality
Healing from trauma and substance abuse is a long road. It takes time for clients to discover key components of their challenges and find a different way forward. While many treatments are long-term, meaning clients will engage with the treatment modality for a long time, EMDR is not.
EMDR is a relatively short-term treatment for trauma. In fact, individuals typically experience significant symptom reduction in just a few sessions. This provides relief from the long-term symptoms of trauma. In addition, it opens up a path for clients to take on their journey to healing from trauma and addiction.
Preparing for the EMDR Therapy Journey
At NorthStar Recovery Center, not all clients undergo EMDR. However, for those with a history of trauma, EMDR therapy can provide relief from the symptoms of trauma and a chance to grow from these traumatic experiences. Preparing for EMDR is an important part of the treatment journey. First, clients are prepped at NorthStar Recovery Center by talking through the process as a whole. As a result, clients can know what is coming, enhancing a feeling of safety and security in treatment.
Setting Personal Goals for Recovery
Additionally, clients are encouraged to set personal goals for recovery as a whole. While this is important for treatment in general, it helps to outline a path forward with EMDR. Clients often have specific memories they wish to address. For many clients, EMDR can serve as a way to open up old wounds that they have been running from for a long time.