Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been used to treat everything from trauma to anxiety. It’s designed to make your fearful thoughts and experiences less overwhelming to your mind, so you can reprocess them in ways that put you in more control.
The interesting thing about EMDR is that it’s not meant to help you “forget” the things that have happened or the things that cause you to feel anxious. Rather, as the name suggests, it’s about reprocessing those feelings into something more manageable.
But how can you tell if it worked? What can you expect after going through this type of treatment, and how long will it take to actually see results?
How Long Does EMDR Therapy Take?
There’s no magic number when it comes to how many sessions you’ll have to go through. Some people start to feel relief from their anxious or fearful thoughts after just two or three sessions. For others, it takes longer.
However, in general, EMDR is a relatively “short-term” therapy. Some people go through talk therapy sessions for years without seeing the results they want or need. Because EMDR works by actually changing the way your brain processes things, it tends to offer results much faster.
With that in mind, you can hope anywhere from 12 to 20 sessions to fully see results. Your therapist will work with you to make sure you’re going at a pace that meets your needs.
What to Expect
Obviously, you won’t be able to tell if EMDR worked until you’ve completed a few sessions. But what can you expect during those sessions? How can you tell if the process is having an effect on you?
The first thing your therapist will do will likely include getting a brief history of you. EMDR isn’t talk therapy, which is why it’s popular with many people who haven’t seen success there. There is some talking involved, especially in the first session when your therapist is getting to know you and trying to understand your needs.
It’s when the desensitization and reprocessing happen that you’ll start to see a difference. The first sign of the treatment working that you’ll probably notice is the traumatic memory or anxious thought feeling less overwhelming. It will still be there, but it won’t be as emotionally distressing as before.
How to Know If It Worked
Your therapist will work with you from the beginning to create a custom plan for you, designed to help with your specific struggles and needs.
You should also track your progress as you’re going through sessions. This is something you can do with your therapist and/or on your own. Give yourself a baseline, to begin with, and see how much it improves with each session. When you start to near the end of your sessions, you’ll have trackable progress to look back on that can help you see how far you’ve come.
Of course, the biggest goal of EMDR is to have more control over anxious or traumatic thoughts. Again, it isn’t to make those thoughts disappear. They will still exist in your mind, and certain things in your everyday life might trigger them.
EMDR helps you see them in a different light, making them less overwhelming and paralyzing. You should be able to think about a traumatic event or experience an anxiety trigger without letting it completely bring you down.
EMDR can be a wonderful modality for anyone who hasn’t seen success with other forms of therapy. Or, for anyone who has experienced trauma and needs help immediately. If you’re interested in learning more about EMDR Therapy, please contact me. at 561/866-6607.