Explore EMDR Therapy in Oakland County, MI
Focus on healing from trauma with EMDR therapy in Oakland County, MI. Per the EMDR International Association, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy method that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress caused by disturbing life experiences.
The brain’s information processing system naturally works on keeping mental health stable, but if it is stopped by a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering for the affected person. Once the block is removed, however, healing should begin.
How EMDR Therapy Works
Using the accepted procedures in standard EMDR therapy training sessions, we help clients activate their innate healing powers. EMDR therapy has long been acknowledged as an effective treatment technique for handling trauma and other similar conditions by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization. Millions of people have been successfully treated over the past 25 years with EMDR Therapy.
EMDR Therapy Treatment
EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment method. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. When the first memory to target has been identified, the client is asked to hold the different aspects of that memory in mind and to use his eyes to follow the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. At this point, one Harvard researcher believes that the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, along with internal associations, lead the client to begin processing the memory and its disturbing feelings.
In successful EMDR therapy, painful events are transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim changes her feelings of self-disgust to strongly believing that “she survived it and she is strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights a client gains from EMDR therapy are his own, not those of his therapist; they come from his accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The wounds from the traumatic event have not just closed; they have been somewhat transformed. As with many EMDR therapeutic processes, the client’s renewed thoughts, feelings, and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing the homework used in other therapies.
Treatment Description
EMDR therapy combines a range of different elements to maximize the results. A full description of the theory, the sequence of treatment, and the research on protocols and the active mechanisms of EMDR therapy is listed in F. Shapiro (2001). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: Basic principles, protocols and procedures (2nd edition). New York: Guilford Press.
Eight-Phase Treatment
EMDR therapy involves an attention to three time periods: the past, present, and future. Focus is given to past disturbing memories and related events. Also, the therapy is given to current situations that cause distress, and to develop the skills and attitudes needed for positive future actions. With EMDR therapy, these items are addressed using an eight-phase treatment approach.
Phase 1
The first phase is a history-taking session(s) in which the therapist assesses the client’s readiness and develops a treatment plan. The client and his therapist then identify possible targets for EMDR processing. These include distressing memories and current situations that cause emotional stress.
Other targets may include past related incidents, but the emphasis is on developing specific skills and behaviors that the client will need in future situations.
Initial EMDR processing may focus on childhood events rather than on adult-onset stressors or the identified critical incident. If the client had a problematic childhood, he generally gains insight into his current situation, his emotional distress resolves, and he begins to change his behavior.
Treatment Duration
The length of treatment depends on the number of traumas and the age of PTSD onset. Generally, those with a single-event adult-onset trauma can be successfully treated in under five hours. Multiple trauma victims, meanwhile, may require a longer treatment time.
Phase 2
During the second phase of treatment, the therapist ensures the client has several ways to handle emotional distress. He may teach the client a variety of imagery and stress reduction techniques to use during and between sessions. A common goal of EMDR therapy is to produce rapid and effective change while the client maintains equilibrium during and between sessions.
Phases 3-6
In phases three to six, a target is identified and processed using EMDR therapy procedures. This involves the client identifying three things:
In addition, the client identifies a positive belief, and his therapist helps him rate it and the intensity of the corresponding negative emotions. After this, the client is instructed to focus on the image, the negative thought, and his body sensations while engaged in EMDR processing using sets of bilateral stimulations. The set may include eye movements, taps, or tones, with the type and length of the set often different for each client. At this point, the client is usually instructed to simply take note of whatever happens to him spontaneously.
Repeated Stimulations
After each set of stimulation, the client is asked to let his/her mind go blank and to take note of whatever thought, feeling, image, memory, or sensation comes to mind. Depending on the results, the clinician will choose the next focus of attention.
These repeated sets with directed focused attention occur numerous times throughout the session. If the client becomes distressed or has difficulty progressing, the established procedures are followed to help the client get back on track.
When the client reports no distress related to the targeted memory, he is asked to recall the preferred positive belief identified at the beginning of the session. At this juncture, the client may adjust the positive belief if necessary and focus on it during the next set of distressing events.
Phase 7
Phase seven is closure, with the client being asked to keep a log during the week. The log should document any related material that arises, serving as a reminder to the client of the self-calming activities mastered in phase two.
Phase 8
Phase eight consists of examining the progress made thus far, with the EMDR treatment processing all related historical events, current incidents that elicit distress, and future events that will require different responses.
OCD Treatment
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and/or behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.
Signs and Symptoms
OCD symptoms can interfere with all aspects of life, such as work, school, and personal relationships.
With obsessions, these involve repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety. Common symptoms include:
Compulsions
These are repetitive behaviors that a person feels the urge to do in response to an obsessive thought. Common compulsions include:
Compulsive Disorder
Not all rituals or habits are compulsions. Everyone double-checks things sometimes, but a person with OCD generally has the following characteristics:
Tics
Some individuals with OCD also have a tic disorder, which comes in different forms. Motor tics are sudden, brief, repetitive movements, such as eye blinking and other eye movements, facial grimacing, shoulder shrugging, and head or shoulder jerking. Vocal tics, meanwhile, involve repetitive throat-clearing, sniffing, or grunting sounds.
Dealing with OCD
OCD symptoms may come and go, ease over time, or simply worsen. People with OCD may try to help themselves by avoiding situations that trigger their obsessions, or use alcohol and/or drugs to calm themselves temporarily. Unfortunately, in the long run, avoidance only serves to perpetuate the misfiring brain synapses, thus strengthening the very actions the OCD individual wants to stop.
Although most adults with OCD recognize that what they are doing doesn’t make sense, some may not realize that their behavior is out of the ordinary. Parents and teachers, for their part, typically recognize OCD symptoms in children.
Risk Factors
OCD is a common disorder that affects adults, adolescents, and children all over the world. Most people are diagnosed with the disorder around age 19, and typically with an earlier age of onset in boys than in girls, although OCD onset after age 35 does happen.
OCD Prescriptions
Medications have been widely used to treat OCD, but more research is needed to prove the benefits they provide. For basic information about these medications, you can visit the NIMH Mental Health Medications webpage. For the most up-to-date information on medications, side effects, and warnings, visit the FDA website.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy can be an effective treatment for adults and children with OCD. Research shows that certain types of psychotherapy methods, including cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and other related therapies (e.g., habit reversal training), can be as effective as medication.
ERP Treatment
Recent researches have shown that a type of CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) – spending time in the very situation that triggers compulsions (e.g., touching dirty objects) but being prevented from performing the usual resulting compulsion (e.g., handwashing) – is effective in reducing compulsive behaviors in OCD, even in people who did not respond well to SRI medications.
ACT Method
ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) is also found to be helpful in defining valued life directions and how OCD interferes with these.
Custom Treatment
As with most mental disorders, OCD treatment is usually personalized and might begin with either medication or psychotherapy, or a combination of both. For many patients, however, EX/RP is the add-on treatment of choice, especially when SRI or SSRIs medication does not effectively treat OCD symptoms or vice versa for those who began treatment with psychotherapy.
IFS Therapy
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic model that views every human being as a system of protective and wounded inner “parts”, developed when we were children as “survival strategies”. At the time, we felt as if our lives were being threatened by scary, terrifying people and situations, but as we grow up, we realize the truth: we are NOW safe, and those childhood “parts” no longer serve us.
Combined with EMDR therapy, IFS is used to access the undamaged, compassionate Self in us, which knows how to heal and transform the “childlike parts.” We are then enabled to resume the journey toward our inner path of growth and outer connectedness.