Therapy retrains the brain using eye movement

Oct. 21--Incest survivor Carol Hall has undergone plenty of psychotherapy for problems stemming from being sexually abused as a child. She says nothing has worked as well for her as eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing, and she is only in the early stages of treatment.

"It is a lot different than just counseling," the Columbus woman said.

Hall described EMDR as an evidence-based treatment for complex trauma such as post-traumatic stress disorder. EMDR is known to alleviate some of the symptoms.

EMDR, which is unlike other therapies because eye movements play a role, is for individuals who have experienced severe trauma that remains unresolved.

EMDR emphasizes disturbing memories from a trauma as the cause of some mental disorders, and the therapy gives people a better way to deal with those memories.

Hall handles marketing for Shedding Our Secrets, a therapeutic support group for incest survivors that is a program of the Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministry. That is where she learned about the therapy.

Rick Garrett, of Americus, Ga., is a licensed clinical social worker in mental health at Martin Army Community Hospital at Fort Benning. It was through Garrett that Hall found out about EMDR.

Garrett volunteers his services to those in Shedding of Secrets. Garrett, who received special training to conduct the psychotherapy, is enthusiastic about EMDR.

"I have seen very good results," he said.

He called the therapy powerful.

Garrett said there was some skepticism when EMDR came on the scene, but now both the Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs and the World Health Organization recognizes its effectiveness in treatment for trauma.

He said he became a believer pretty fast.

EMDR is the brainchild of psychologist Francine Shapiro. It was in incident in 1987 that started it all.

Garrett said Shapiro, who was ill at the time, discovered the effects of eye movements while walking in a park.

In an interview with PsychCentral, Shapiro said while on her walk she noticed disturbing thoughts she was having had disappeared, and when she brought them back, they didn't have the same charge.

She began paying careful attention and noticed that when that kind of thought came up, her eyes started moving rapidly in a certain way and the thoughts shifted out of consciousness and were less bothersome when they returned.

She began to do it deliberately and found the same results.

Shapiro then experimented with other people.

Garrett said the therapy is done in eight phases and the eye movements are just part of it.

Phase one is history taking that identifies the problems and the person's earlier experiences that are the foundation for the symptoms.

Garrett said brief sets of quick eye movements are used in other phases. Some therapists use fingers for the patient's eyes to follow back and forth. Garrett uses a light bar. The patient focuses on a negative image or thought associated with their problem while moving their eyes.

Later, while still moving their eyes back and forth, the patient focuses on a positive belief established earlier in the therapy. Garrett said each set lasts 20-30 seconds.

According to Shapiro, it is during this time that the brain makes the needed connections that transform the stuck memory into a learning experience and take it to an adaptive resolution.

She said that what is useful is learned, and what is now useless, the negative reactions, emotions and thoughts, is discarded. A rape victim, for example, may begin with a feeling of shame and fear, but at the end of the session report: "The shame is his, not mine. I'm a strong resilient woman."

Garrett said EMDR is about reducing the anxiety that comes with disturbing thoughts.

He said memories can have a deep impact on people. As an example, he used first responders who might see a dead child but can't be emotional because they have a job to do. The memory remains and causes an emotional disturbance. Someone might believe that being a survivor of incest was somehow their fault.

Both Garrett and Hall said disturbing memories can seriously affect a life.

"The memories can affect every choice you make," Hall said.

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