EMDR focuses on not only emotions and thoughts, but the way that stress responses are stored in the body. The cliche is true: the body remembers.
Trauma is not only about disturbing events or even the memory of those events. Instead, trauma is about the way the disturbance, isolation, or inability to get out of those situations are stored in the body.
When trauma is not fully processed, the body may hold onto trauma responses. Therefore, in addition to focusing on emotions and memories, EMDR therapy incorporates a somatic component to make sure the effects of trauma are cleared.
EMDR And The Body
EMDR is a model of therapy focused on reprocessing memories that have become “stuck” in a trauma response.
These unprocessed memories can lead to negative thoughts about ourselves and discomfort in emotions. As such, reprocessing these sensations gives us an opportunity to modify physical sensations, emotions, and our beliefs.
Trauma Responses
Our bodies have a natural stress response system through the activation of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. The activation of these systems releases stress chemicals into the body in order to move us into action.
However, if the trauma is not fully “processed” after the threat has passed, the stress response cycle does not complete. Therefore, the nervous system can stay in a state of dysregulation. The unprocessed material can result in emotional distress and even physical discomfort.
Unprocessed emotion and trauma can manifest as physical symptoms like:
- Tightness in the Chest
- Stomach Pain or Nausea
- Tension
- Crying or shaking uncontrollably
- Difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle tension
EMDR
EMDR therapy, short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, helps individuals process traumatic memories to complete the trauma response loop.
Through EMDR, clients revisit distressing memories to “reopen” them. Then, while engaging in bilateral stimulation like eye movements, the brain reprocesses these experiences.
The memories are then stored in a way that no longer activates automatic fear responses. Over time, this reduces emotional distress and allows the body to return to a regulated state.
Bilateral stimulation activates both hemispheres of the brain (i.e., the cognitive and the emotion functions). The technique activates the brain’s adaptive information processing system, similar to REM sleep, which completes and processes these memories.
It connects these memories to the brain’s reasoning areas, allowing individuals to make sense of past experiences and reduce their emotional charge.
How EMDR Incorporates The Body
Many trauma survivors experience physical health symptoms due to the body’s prolonged stress response. Over time, the stagnation of chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol tax the body.
Before and after clients move through bilateral stimulation, the therapist guides them in body scans to assess for somatic expression of trauma and emotions.
Then, by reprocessing traumatic memories, EMDR helps release stored tension and reduce the “charge” of the memories. This process eases somatic symptoms and promotes a greater sense of physical well-being.
Clients often report feeling lighter, experiencing fewer body aches, and noticing improvements in sleep and overall relaxation as a result of EMDR therapy.
Emotional grounding and self-regulation techniques before and after EMDR sessions help stabilize the nervous system and keep the body from moving into a trauma response. These coping skills, like butterfly tapping, make the process more manageable, holding clients in the present while they revisit and process memories of the past.
Simple practices like breathing, mindfulness, sensory awareness, and movement can support smoother healing and reduce lingering distress.
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