Dealing with depression can leave a person feeling stuck, hopeless, and bad about who we are. Yet, experiencing depression is normal. In the U.S. about 9% of people endure clinically-significant depression each year. Luckily, EMDR for depression can help individuals heal.
Depression is mood disorder with symptoms varying in type and intensity. Most commonly, depression leads to feelings of numb or emptiness, a lack of motivation, and negative thoughts about self and self-worth. Additionally, those experiencing depression often have difficulty finding pleasure in areas they once did.
Today, we’re going to talk about EMDR therapy and how the structured model can support individuals in relieving experiences of depression.
EMDR Therapy For Depression
Depression impacts the whole of a person: emotions, thoughts, and body sensations. When dealing with depression, you may notice some of the following symptoms:
- Sleeping too much or trouble sleeping at all
- Overeating or lack of appetite
- Low energy and brain fog
- Low motivation for things that once brought pleasure
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
- Low or no sex drive
- Feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and hopelessness
All of these symptoms greatly impact an individuals ability to participate fully in their life. They also can have negative impacts on the health of relationships with family, partners, and friends.
While the origins can vary, one way that people develop these negative feelings and beliefs is through traumatic experiences that leave them feeling alone, blamed, or ashamed.
Someone without these difficult experiences may more easily be able to adaptively process their emotions and transform their thoughts into more helpful ones. However, traumatic experiences can prevent someone from reaching these healed, processed, and integrated places. Depression can ensue as a result.
How Can EMDR Help?
EMDR therapy for depression can relieve some of the depressive symptoms described above in a few key ways:
- Reframe negative beliefs about self, others, and the world
- Resolve unprocessed trauma or otherwise adverse experiences
- Improved energy levels and mood
- Facilitate more positive view of self
EMDR therapy for depression can be used alone or in conjunction with other counseling approaches to create a safe environment for clients to achieve their goals.
Research in the field of mental health supports the use of EMDR for the treatment of depression. In therapy, an EMDR therapist will help you link your current symptoms with the experience of unresolved issues from the past. They will help you reprocess those memories so that your brain learns to exist in the present rather than the past.
In addition to using EMDR, a therapist will build a strong relationship with you so that you can feel safe and understood in your sessions. They will help you identify and address the areas from your life to focus on in EMDR treatment.
Benefits of using EMDR for depression
Rapid relief of emotional distress.Long-term improvement in mood and outlook.Holistic healing (mental, emotional, and even physical benefits).
Rapid Relief
Results are not guaranteed and vary greatly among clients based on several factors. Yet, many clients are surprised at how quickly they are able to find relief by incorporating the techniques in EMDR.
Sustained Results
EMDR focuses on resolving not only the current symptoms, but the early experiences that result in the intensity of those symptoms. In other words, EMDR is a root-cause oriented model focused on healing the origins of distress through dual attention stimulus, among other interventions.
Holistic Healing
The structured approach considers emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations, as emotions are stored in the body. As such, clients often experience relief in how they feel, they see through a lens of more helpful thoughts, and they carry less stress in their bodies after treatment.
What to Expect in an EMDR Session
EMDR treatment occurs over 8 phases and takes several sessions. The length of the entirety of treatment will depend several factors, including the complexity of traumatic experiences.
Remember, experiences in life like betrayal, rejection, and abandonment can result in traumatic impacts on our brains and bodies. Be sure to communicate openly with your therapist about your goals and triggers so they can help focus the work.
EMDR reprocessing takes a number of sessions, and your therapist will help you to return to a calm place at the end of each session and talk to you about how to “close” down the work until your next session. It is important to communicate with your therapist about your needs, triggers, and hopes so they can help you with their supportive presence to stay grounded and present during the reprocessing process.
Phase 1: History and Treatment Planning
At the beginning of therapy, you’ll discuss with your therapist what you’ve been through, where you’re stuck, and present triggers. This work will help identify the target memories to focus on in treatment.
Phase 2: Preparation
EMDR therapy activates our memories in order to reprocess them. Before reactivation, treatment incorporates practicing grounding techniques and identifying your internal resources that you can access if the process becomes overwhelming. You also have a chance to get any questions answered.
Phase 3: Assessment
Identify the memories you’d like to reprocess. You’ll also touch into the full experience of those memories (e.g., beliefs, emotions, and felt sense in the body).
Phase 4: Desensitization
You will start thinking about the event and follow movement with your eyes (or alternatively hold tappers in your hands or self-tap or listen to tones). During the process, you will:
- Observe changes in your body sensations
- Notice thoughts
- Experience the feelings that arise
The goal is to go with what comes up and notice how it changes over the course of the reprocessing sessions, without judgement or trying to change.
While in early stages people rarely believe that how they feel can ever change, EMDR does help people process through painful memories so that they are no longer stored in that raw, vivid, state specific form.
Phase 5: Installation
As you reprocess the events from the past, EMDR tackles negative beliefs such as “I am worthless,” “I am not good enough,” or “I don’t deserve happiness.”
Processing these thougths results in the strengthening of more positive beliefs such as, “I am okay how I am,” “I deserve to be happy,” and “I am lovable.”
Phase 6: Body Scan
Scan your body for emotional disturbance held physiologically and reprocess any tension that remains.
Phase 7: Closure
At the end of each session, the therapist will guide you out of the reprocessing back into a state of calm.
Because you activate memory networks in treatment, you might notice that additional memories pop up in between sessions. This is normal. Just write down what comes up to incorporate in the next session.
Phase 8: Reevaluation
Assess whether you still feel relief after the reprocessing. If not, the therapist will guide you back into the process to continue the work. You can also shift the focus to other memories you’d like to reprocess.
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