What Are Eye-Movement Trauma Therapies and Are They Right for Me?
/Trauma can have a significant impact on mental health, but the right treatment can help ensure that you call the shots in your life. Not your trauma.
At Hidden River Counseling, we use several different techniques to help clients minimize the lasting effects of trauma so that deep, holistic healing can occur. This way, you can live your truest life, without the distress of unprocessed traumas arising.
As therapists, we know that the many trauma treatment modalities can be overwhelming to new patients. The acronyms alone – from EDMR to ART and beyond – can be tricky for non-professionals.
So we’ve created a guide to two of the most popular techniques for clients who are interested in finding healing from traumatic experiences under the guidance of a counselor. We’ll break down some of the important things to understand about trauma and trauma treatment, specifically two common eye-movement treatments that are offered at Hidden River.
What is trauma?
Trauma is an event that significantly disrupts our life and activates the fight or flight response, both in the moment it occurs and beyond. Obvious traumas can include losing a loved one suddenly, being injured in a car wreck, or surviving assault.
But we can also experience more subjective trauma in the form of events that may be less dramatic, but still feel disruptive and rattling to us. This could mean losing a job or having a spouse cheat in a marriage.
Whatever the inciting incident, trauma often leaves us with lasting physical and emotional damage, which can take the form of anxiety, depression, physical ailments, and more.
If you are new to the science of trauma or need a refresher, check out this blog post about how to assess whether or not you may need trauma therapy.
Eye-Movement Trauma Treatments
Eye-movement trauma treatments are forms of therapy that use bi-lateral stimulation as a tool to help clients desensitize trauma memories, or make your reactions to memories and triggers less intense. It also helps the brain reorganize the information related to traumas. Instead of treating the traumatic memory as an immediate threat that calls for the full flight or fight response, your brain will categorize it as an experience that’s truly in the past, no longer requiring the same stress reaction.
Bi-lateralization stimulates the left and right side of the brain in turns. For reasons that are still mysterious to researchers, this rhythmic stimulation between both sides of the brain has been shown to make distressing memories less distressing. Better yet, the effects often prove to last beyond the session in which the technique is used, meaning your traumatic memories can become less problematic for your everyday living.
There are many compelling theories as to why bilateral stimulation and eye movements are effective tools in trauma treatment. And while we still don’t have the final word on why this form of therapy is so successful, we know from studies on treatment outcomes that it can lead to remarkable results.
Are eye-movement therapies the only way to go?
Definitely not. There are many proven and effective trauma treatments out there. However, the therapists at Hidden River who use eye-movement therapies have seen clients enjoy substantial and lasting healing and freedom from some of their traumatic experiences.
Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) & Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
Hidden River Counseling offers both EMDR and ART eye-movement therapies. Since these techniques are new to many clients, we’ve included some frequently asked questions that will hopefully provide insight into the similarities and differences between EMDR and ART. Familiarizing yourself with these therapies can help you and your therapist develop the right treatment plan for you.
Want to do a deep dive and learn even more? Check out these links: