The things you experience in your formative years are things you carry with you throughout your life. Many of those are good, positive experiences. When trauma is part of those experiences, though, it can stick with you and make adult life difficult.

Childhood trauma is usually a form of complex trauma or CPTSD, which requires dedicated effort and effective treatment options to address. Moreover, everyone has different experiences and different mentalities, and a big part of finding therapy that works is figuring out how to untangle the complex web of traumatic experiences, memories, coping mechanisms, and other elements of life.

For many, one of the most effective options is EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy. At BMC-Troy, we’re proud to offer EMDR as one of our available clinical services, and we’re happy to answer any questions you may have.

Among those questions we commonly receive are things like:

• How does EMDR work? Does it really work?
• How long will EMDR take?
• Will EMDR completely relieve my CPTSD?

We’ll cover all of this and more below, so keep on reading to find out. Or, if you’re interested in giving it a try right away, you can call our office at (248) 528-9000 or fill out our new patient intake form directly.

EMDR is not a crisis therapy. If you are experiencing a crisis, don’t hesitate to call 988 or reach out to a crisis lifeline. Help is always available.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered medical or psychological advice. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any mental health condition or replace professional therapeutic care. Every individual's experience with trauma and mental health is unique. Please consult with a qualified mental health professional, therapist, or healthcare provider to determine the most appropriate treatment approach for your specific situation. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or emergency, please contact your local emergency services or crisis hotline immediately.

What is EMDR Therapy and Does It Work?

If you’ve ever heard about EMDR but never really looked into it, you might think that it’s part of the broad spectrum of “woo” and similar ineffective scams out there. After all, the premise sounds ridiculous; therapy that works better than traditional therapy because you’re moving your eyes? It’s outlandish!

We’d be right there with you, if not for a large and increasing body of evidence proving its efficacy.

EMDR was first invented in 1987, making it one of the more recent developments in therapy techniques. Since its creation, it has been studied extensively and proven to be at least as effective as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy options such as CPT and prolonged exposure therapy.

Because of that body of evidence, EMDR has grown to be recommended by various groups and organizations, including the World Health Organization, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the US’s Department of Veterans Affairs, and the American Psychological Association.

Critics will say that EMDR is effective because of the desensitization and reprocessing elements and not because of the eye movements, and call it a purple hat therapy. Be that as it may, eye movement is not a high bar, doesn’t require extra cost or investment, and doesn’t detract from the therapy, so at worst it’s a framing device. Some theories even seem to indicate that the directed eye movements in EMDR replicate the eye movements in REM sleep, and its associated emotional processing.

Can EMDR Work for Childhood Trauma?

Childhood trauma can take many forms and can stem from single incidents or many incidents over time, as well as from neglect. The repercussions can be immense and can lead to all manner of negative side effects, unhealthy coping mechanisms, health issues, and more. Those with childhood trauma are often more likely to take up smoking, overeating, and substance use, and can develop related health problems.

All of this is generally classified as complex trauma and CPTSD. As children, we aren’t equipped to healthily understand and emotionally process traumatic experiences, which can be challenging even for adults.

EMDR is designed to target specific traumatic memories, help you desensitize them so they don’t trigger negative responses, and reprocess them into more neutral memories while instilling positive cognition in place of those reactions. Though it can take time to target individual memories and reprocess them, it’s a proven effective therapy method for complex trauma cases, and that includes childhood trauma.

How EMDR Works

EMDR therapy takes place along an 8-phase plan, which identifies a target element of trauma, addresses it, and takes stock of your mental well-being, and can repeat as necessary to address complex trauma and multiple interrelated issues.

Phase 1 is history-taking, and is generally only done once with a given therapist or provider. This is where you go over your history, conduct an assessment of your current baseline, discuss the kinds of traumas and issues you want to address, and identify specific targets to aim for and future goals to reach. It’s about establishing a baseline, picking goals, and figuring out where to aim the therapy.

Phase 2 is preparation. This is where your provider will discuss EMDR and explain how it works, go over the elements of eye movement, desensitization, emotional reprocessing, and other components.

Phase 3 is assessment. This is where your provider will help guide you through identifying a specific memory related to trauma, one that you want to address and reprocess in a healthier way. Assessment guides you through the memory along different components, like image, cognition, body sensation, and affect. The memory is assessed along two scales, the Subjective Units of Disturbance and the Validity of Cognition scales. These set a baseline for how you feel about the memory and how you react to it.

Note that, unlike talk therapy, where you’re asked to think about and discuss your memories with a provider or peer group, EMDR doesn’t require you to vocalize or relive your trauma in that way. Most of the work is done internally, as you think about and reprocess the memory in a controlled setting. For many people, this can be a more comforting setting, where you can work through your traumas without the added layer of discomfort of discussing them.

Phases 4-7 are where the reprocessing begins. Each session follows the same structure.

• In desensitization, you focus on the specific memory while engaging in eye movements (or similar bilateral stimulation), and report any new thoughts or considerations that have emerged. New thoughts can then be focused on individually, and the chain followed until the memory is no longer distressing to think about.
• In installation, you focus on positive cognition related to the memory and strengthen those positive associations to further remove the negativity and trauma surrounding the memory.
• In the body scan, you consider your own body and your physical and physiological responses to the traumatic incident being addressed. You think of your positive cognition, identify residual distress in your body, and address any lingering responses.
• In closure, you set things in place and settle at the end of the session. Individual memories can take numerous sessions to address, so closure is used to settle the mind and ensure as much safety as possible in between sessions.

Finally, phase 8 is the re-evaluation, which kicks off each subsequent session. During this phase, your provider reassesses your state, identifies which elements of treatment have remained and which have not, and determines how to proceed for the next session.

This entire process, from phase 3 to 8, is repeated for each core traumatic memory or experience making up the tangle of CPTSD and childhood trauma. Through repetition of the same process, the trauma can be unraveled and the memories settled, with new positive cognition instilled and negative physiological and cognitive reactions reduced or removed.

Are There Risks to EMDR Therapy?

Fortunately, no. EMDR therapy is not invasive, and since a lot of your reprocessing is internal, you don’t even have to deeply discuss your traumatic experiences outside of the initial assessment.

The only potential risk of EMDR is that it may take time to address all of your traumatic memories and their related somatic components, and in some cases, the timeline is such that you could run out of insurance-approved sessions before reaching the level of closure you desire. While you can often gain approval for more sessions as needed, we know how frustrating it can be to work with insurance companies and how limiting they can be.

Some people may also find that EMDR isn’t effective for them. This can be due to a number of possibilities, such as:

• Your therapist isn’t a good fit for you and your trauma.
• Your mind isn’t in the right place to reprocess traumatic memories yet.
• Your childhood traumatic experiences may be better suited for CBT or DBT instead.

EMDR is best suited for PTSD and CPTSD. While most childhood trauma falls into these categories, it doesn’t always, and sometimes alternative therapies are more effective.

How Long Does EMDR Take for Childhood Trauma?

The key thing to know about therapies like EMDR is that there’s no fixed timeline. While it’s an effective therapy, every individual is different, everyone’s trauma is different, and the time it takes to address each facet of each memory will vary.

Initially, you will go through a patient intake and history-taking session. In some cases, especially if you aren’t used to discussing your traumas, it can take several sessions to build enough trust with your provider to fully discuss the situation and determine a treatment plan. These sessions will vary in duration based on your and your provider’s schedules and needs.

After the initial intake and patient history session, each EMDR session is generally 60-90 minutes long. Depending on your needs and scheduling, you might have one or two sessions per week. Most often, one session per week is enough for simpler traumas and single-incident traumas, while more complex cases might benefit from two sessions per week.

Some individual patients with less severe issues, such as social anxiety, may opt for shorter individual sessions on a more rapid schedule as well. This is something you would discuss with your provider to determine what treatment schedule best suits your traumas and your needs.

Each specific traumatic memory and experience is addressed individually. Depending on the trauma, the strength of your responses to it, and other factors, it might take 1-3 sessions to address that memory, or it may take more. Some people take 8-10 sessions for particularly traumatic memories. Some take even longer. There’s no fixed timeline, no goals or quotas to meet, and no “failure state” where you lose out because you haven’t made progress.

Healing takes place at its own pace.

A lot of internal and external factors can affect how long addressing a memory takes.

• How severe the traumatic memory is, and how intensely negative the reactions to it are.
• The risk of triggers and between-session aggravations resetting some progress.
• Your own personal receptiveness to the EMDR process.

There’s nothing really unique about EMDR in this sense. Every form of therapy moves at its own pace, with periods of progress and periods of treading water.

It can also be important to recognize that you aren’t a project to solve for your therapist. You’re an individual with goals, and your therapist is there to help you reach those goals, whatever they may be.

So, whether you have relatively simple or low-grade traumatic experiences, or you have deeply intense and nested traumas, EMDR can help you make progress with each session.

Broadly speaking, many patients undertake EMDR therapy for 6-18 months, with some going for two or more years. There’s no limit and no end to how effective EMDR therapy can be; just continue it for as long as you and your provider believe it can continue to help.

How to Get Started with EMDR Therapy for Childhood Trauma

When it comes to receiving therapy for childhood trauma, the first step is often the hardest.

If you have any questions about EMDR therapy, what we offer at BMC-Troy, and how it can benefit you, feel free to contact us. If you’re interested in getting started right away, you can fill out our new patient intake form at our office in Troy, or directly from our website here.

If money or insurance is a concern, you may consider reaching out to some of the free mental health service providers in the Detroit area. Assistance may be available, or you may be able to get started with EMDR through free mental health providers before continuing with paid services once you’ve determined that it works for you.