La ciencia de la terapia EMDR

Find relief from the pain of the past with EMDR therapy

How Your Brain Heals from Trauma

If you're searching for "EMDR therapy near me" in North Riverside, Forest Park, Broadview, La Grange Park, Brookfield, Berwyn, or Chicago, IL, you've likely heard about the remarkable results people are experiencing with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. This innovative trauma therapy has gained significant attention for treating mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other distressing life experiences. But how exactly does EMDR treatment work? What's happening in your brain during those eye movement sessions?

Many people are curious—and sometimes skeptical—about EMDR therapy. After all, how can moving your eyes back and forth actually help process traumatic memories? Let me assure you: EMDR isn't hypnosis, and it's definitely not a gimmick designed to make you forget your problems. Instead, EMDR therapy is a scientifically validated treatment that facilitates your brain's natural healing processes, helping you reprocess traumatic memories in a way that reduces their emotional intensity.

Let's dive into the fascinating neuroscience behind EMDR therapy and explore why EMDR therapists across the country—and right here in the Chicago area—are seeing such transformative results.

Understanding How Trauma Gets "Stuck" in Your Brain

To understand how EMDR therapy works, we first need to understand what happens in your brain when you experience trauma.

When you go through an overwhelming or traumatic event, your brain's natural information processing system can become disrupted. Normally, our brains process experiences during sleep, particularly during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, moving memories from short-term storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the neocortex. This natural process helps us make sense of our experiences and file them away appropriately.

However, traumatic memories often don't get processed this way. Instead, they become "stuck" in the amygdala-hippocampal complex—the emotional center of your brain. When these memories remain unprocessed, they seem to exist in the present moment rather than feeling like something that happened in the past. This is why trauma survivors often describe feeling like they're reliving the event when triggered, experiencing the same overwhelming emotions, physical sensations, and disturbing images as if the trauma were happening right now.

When you're triggered by a traumatic memory, the amygdala (your brain's alarm system) and hippocampus (involved in memory formation) become overstimulated. Meanwhile, the prefrontal cortex—the rational, thinking part of your brain that helps you analyze situations and regulate emotions—loses its ability to control these activated areas. This is why when you're triggered, you can't think clearly and feel completely overwhelmed. Your emotional brain has essentially hijacked your rational brain.

The EMDR Process: Mimicking Your Brain's Natural Healing

Here's where EMDR therapy becomes fascinating. EMDR therapists use bilateral stimulation—typically guided eye movements, but sometimes tapping or audio tones—to help your brain process these stuck traumatic memories. Research suggests that EMDR therapy mimics what naturally happens during REM sleep when your brain processes daily experiences and consolidates memories.

During an EMDR treatment session, your therapist will ask you to focus on a specific traumatic memory or disturbing thought while simultaneously following their finger or an object moving back and forth across your visual field. This bilateral stimulation appears to activate the same mechanisms your brain uses during sleep to process and integrate experiences.

Neuroscience research has revealed something remarkable: EEG tracings show that the eye movements used in EMDR therapy create a synchronization of brain activity at frequencies similar to slow-wave sleep. This temporary slowing of brain waves helps calm your overstimulated amygdala and allows different parts of your brain to communicate more effectively with each other.

Reactivating Neural Networks and Reconnecting Your Brain

During EMDR therapy sessions, the bilateral stimulation facilitates communication between the emotional and logical parts of your brain, reactivating and reconnecting neural pathways that help you process the traumatic memory more adaptively.

Think of it this way: traumatic memories create roadblocks in your brain's information highway. EMDR therapy acts like a construction crew that builds new routes around these blockages, allowing information to flow more freely between different brain regions. This improved communication enables the logical, rational side of your brain (the prefrontal cortex) to finally help soothe and regulate the emotional side (the amygdala and limbic system).

As your brain reprocesses the traumatic memory during EMDR treatment, the memory itself doesn't disappear—you don't forget what happened. However, the way you experience and think about the memory changes fundamentally. The overwhelming emotions, disturbing images, and negative beliefs associated with that memory become less intense and no longer feel like they're happening in the present moment. The memory gets properly "filed away" as something that happened in the past, rather than feeling like an ongoing threat.

How can I get an appointment with an EMDR therapist?

Click on the button below this section and look for an appointment with Jazmin Morales or Noel Cordova, who are our two EMDR trained therapists. Our EMDR therapists are in network with BCBS PPO, Blue Choice PPO, My Blue Plus, most commercial Aetna plans, First Health, and most Cigna/Evernorth plans. If you don’t see any appointments available now, check back in a couple of weeks. We update our availability frequently.

What to Expect During EMDR Therapy Sessions

If you're considering EMDR therapy near North Riverside, Forest Park, Broadview, La Grange Park, Brookfield, Berwyn, or Chicago, IL, understanding what happens during sessions can help ease any concerns.

EMDR therapy follows an eight-phase protocol developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro. During sessions, your EMDR therapist will guide you through a structured process that includes:

History Taking and Treatment Planning: Your therapist will learn about your background and identify specific memories or issues to target.

Preparation: You'll learn coping skills and relaxation techniques to use during and between sessions.

Assessment: Together, you'll identify the specific images, negative beliefs, emotions, and body sensations associated with the traumatic memory.

Desensitization: This is where the bilateral stimulation happens. You'll focus on the traumatic memory while following your therapist's finger or another form of bilateral stimulation. During this phase, you might experience various emotions, physical sensations, insights, or other memories—all signs that your brain is actively processing and reintegrating the traumatic material.

Installation: You'll strengthen positive beliefs to replace the negative ones associated with the trauma.

Body Scan: You'll check for any remaining physical tension related to the memory.

Closure: Your therapist will ensure you feel stable before ending the session.

Reevaluation: At the beginning of each new session, you'll review your progress.

During the desensitization phase, you'll likely experience strong emotions, and that's not only normal—it's a positive sign that processing is occurring. Your EMDR therapist creates a safe environment where you can experience these emotions while your brain actively rewires itself to promote healing.

The Neuroscience of Weakening Traumatic Memories

One of the most powerful aspects of EMDR therapy is how it affects the strength of traumatic memories at a neurological level.

EMDR helps synchronize your brain waves by temporarily slowing down the amygdala's reactivity. The amygdala is responsible for emotional responses and the storage of emotional memories. By calming this region during bilateral stimulation, you become less likely to feel overwhelmed by negative thoughts and emotions. This gives your prefrontal cortex—the area responsible for rational thinking, decision-making, and emotional regulation—a chance to participate in processing the memory.

Research suggests that EMDR treatment induces changes at the synaptic level in the amygdala, essentially weakening the neural connections that make traumatic memories so emotionally charged. This "depotentiation" makes the traumatic memory more accessible to conscious processing and facilitates the connection between emotional memory and episodic memory, allowing the experience to be integrated with your other life experiences rather than remaining isolated and overwhelming.

The result? The traumatic memory becomes weaker over time. It doesn't disappear, but it no longer stands out so strongly or triggers such intense emotional and physical reactions. The weaker these negative thoughts and memories become, the easier it becomes to take control of your mental well-being without getting overwhelmed by triggers.

It is possible to let go of the past and enjoy life again

Why EMDR Therapy Works: The Evidence

EMDR therapy isn't just theoretically sound—it's backed by extensive research. Multiple prestigious organizations have recognized EMDR as an effective treatment for trauma and PTSD, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Research has shown that EMDR therapy can be more effective than medication for some trauma-related conditions. One landmark study found that EMDR was superior to Prozac in treating PTSD, with EMDR producing lasting results without the side effects of medication.

For many clients, EMDR therapy can produce significant improvements in fewer sessions than traditional talk therapy, particularly for single-incident traumas. Even complex trauma that occurred over extended periods can be effectively treated with EMDR, though it may require more sessions to address multiple traumatic memories and build adequate coping resources.

Is EMDR Therapy Right For You?

If you're dealing with trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, or other distressing experiences, EMDR therapy might be an excellent option. While EMDR sessions involve less talking than traditional therapy, you'll still need to open up to your EMDR therapist about the specific thoughts, memories, or experiences causing you difficulty. The more honest and detailed you can be, the more effectively your therapist can target those issues during bilateral stimulation.

EMDR therapy has been successfully used to treat a wide range of conditions beyond PTSD, including anxiety disorders, panic attacks, phobias, depression, grief and loss, chronic pain, addiction, and the effects of emotional abuse or neglect.

If you're in North Riverside, Forest Park, Broadview, La Grange Park, Brookfield, Berwyn, or anywhere in the Chicago, IL area and searching for "EMDR therapy near me," finding a trained and experienced EMDR therapist is crucial. EMDR is a specialized treatment that requires proper training and certification, so look for therapists who have completed approved EMDR training programs.

Taking the Next Step Toward Healing

The science behind EMDR therapy reveals a treatment approach that works with your brain's natural healing capabilities rather than against them. By facilitating the reprocessing of traumatic memories through bilateral stimulation, EMDR therapy helps unstick memories that have been causing you distress, allowing your brain to integrate these experiences in a healthier, more adaptive way.

If you have questions about whether EMDR treatment might be right for you, or if you'd like to learn more about how this trauma therapy could address your specific concerns, I'm here to help. Contact me today to discuss EMDR therapy options and schedule an appointment. Your journey toward healing and relief from traumatic memories can begin with a single conversation.

The remarkable neuroscience behind EMDR therapy demonstrates that healing from trauma isn't about forgetting or suppressing difficult memories—it's about helping your brain process these experiences so they no longer control your life. With the right EMDR therapist and a commitment to the process, you can experience the freedom that comes from truly moving past trauma.