Most of us experience some form of trauma at some point in our lives. In fact, per the National Institute of Mental Health, about half of adults in the United States will experience a traumatic even in their life.
For some people, burying and suppressing traumatic memories deep into their subconscious has been a way of survival. If they have not had success in dealing with those memories, it makes sense to shut them away all together.
Yet, unprocessed trauma tend to result in anxiety, depression, and other post traumatic symptoms. These memories can result in our nervous system staying in a stress response state, flooding the body with stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline that cause wear over time. We also can become very easily triggered if our bodies are carrying around old trauma and stress patterns.
EMDR can help to finally deal with these memories so they can be adaptively processed. Even if you cannot remember your trauma vividly, and EMDR therapist can walk you through techniques to find the memory networks that may be causing you discomfort.
Does EMDR Help You Remember Trauma?
First, let’s talk about trauma and the brain. Some people cannot remember traumatic experiences or events, but still experience symptoms. This is actually normal and has to do with the way trauma affects the brain’s memory system.
When the brain detects a threat, it shifts into a fight-flight-freeze survival response system. The fear part of the brain (i.e., the amygdala) takes over, while the thinking part of the brain (i.e., the prefrontal cortex) takes a back seat. While our brains have an adaptive information processing system, this is one reason that memories may not stored properly when they are associated with trauma.
Additionally, dissociation and numbing can serve as unconscious survival responses after the traumatic event. In other words, we may mentally detach from an event so we don’t have to keep reliving the horror. Of course, this can cause gaps in memory over time.
We also have different memory storage systems. Traumatic events are often stored in implicit memory (body sensations, emotions, and instincts) rather than explicit memory (conscious recall of events). As such, we can experience the bodily discomfort without having conscious awareness of its roots.
EMDR And Memory
In EMDR, a therapist helps you start at the beginning with your present triggers. The therapist may use techniques to help you identify whether present triggers are connected to memory networks that hold history of trauma.
Once you identify other memories connected to your present triggers, you and your therapist will decide which memory to target first. The techniques of EMDR called bilateral stimulation engage the brain’s natural processing system, or its healing process.
During this process, memory networks are activated. Therefore, forgotten memories may be more easily accessed. However, remembering is not the goal of treatment.
What If You Can’t Remember Trauma?
Does EMDR help you remember trauma? While some may experience more recall, it is not guaranteed or necessary for the process.
Because EMDR techniques start with present triggers, it’s okay if you do not have a clear memory of past experiences. Through EMDR therapy, you’ll learn to become more connected to bodily sensations, emotions, and beliefs.
The focus of therapy is to reprocess memories keeping you stuck and shift negative beliefs about Self into positive ones. Working with the emotions and body sensations, rather than just the cognitive functions, can create profound relief.
EMDR is also not a traditional form of talk therapy. You do not have to describe or hold memories in vivid detail in order to complete the work in therapy. You choose how much or little about your memories that you’d like to share with your therapist.
Whether or not you are able to recall your trauma, the reprocessing and somatic elements of EMDR may offer you relief of present day stressors and triggers.
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