How can EMDR therapy help with anxiety? Everything you need to know about EMDR anxiety treatment
The newest, 2024, statistics on anxiety are astonishing. The American Psychiatric Association found that around 43% of adults feel more anxiety than they did the previous year. Nonetheless, only 1 in 4 people will actually talk to a professional about it. Yet, anxiety doesn’t just magically go away. On the contrary, if not addressed and worked on, it can only increase, as the automatic thinking patterns just fortify more the longer they are repeated.
So, let’s talk about anxiety and how EMDR and the therapists at EMDR Therapy Nashville can help with it, both promptly and effectively.
Anxiety and its symptoms
Anxiety is one of the most often psychological difficulties of our time. Experiencing anxiety is a normal part of being human, as it can serve as a great motivator for change and improvement. Unfortunately, due to different circumstances, anxiousness is not always limited to particular situations and transforms into a general condition, present more often than not. When this happens, anxiety restricts and disables normal daily functioning, leading to uneasiness, fear, and low self-esteem.
The cause of anxiety can both be a noticeable and clear danger for something that’s about to happen, like having an exam; or it can come from a non-apparent cause and all of a sudden. As a result of anxiety, we might experience increased heartbeat, shallow and fast breathing, tingling sensation in our muscles, sweating, or lightheadedness. All of the symptoms result from the body’s need to prepare for fighting, fleeing, or freezing in response to whatever real or imagined danger.
If you think you might be having anxiety, check by counting how many of these symptoms you have:
Rapid and shallow breathing
Increased perspiration
Fast heartbeat
Feeling like you don’t have control over anything
Mood changes and irritability
Constant worry, fear, or restlessness
Avoidance of certain situations and people that might make you feel anxiety
Feeling disconnected from others and yourself
Panic attacks and feeling like you might be dying or going crazy
Changes in sleeping patterns (like sleeping too much or not being able to fall asleep)
Nightmares or insomnia
Difficulty concentrating and memorizing
Gastrointestinal problems
For people who have anxiety or anxiety disorders, the effects of anxiety are overwhelming and restrictive. If not addressed, anxiety increases over time and can lead to anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, various phobias, social anxiety disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
One of the best and most effective treatments available for anxiety is EMDR. With the help of this treatment and a professional EMDR therapist, as well as other coping strategies, you can overcome your feelings of panic, emotional pain, worry, restlessness, avoidance, or withdrawal.
What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR is a psychotherapy treatment that aims to alleviate emotional pain and distress from traumatic experiences. The name is an abbreviation standing for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. This type of psychotherapy is relatively new, as psychologist Francine Shapiro developed it in the 1980s. Nonetheless, research continuously shows that EMDR deserves its place as one of the most effective therapies for PTSD, anxiety, and related issues.
EMDR treats trauma-related difficulties and conditions. This psychotherapy treatment utilizes how the brain processes information and relies on the brain’s ability to reprocess memories under the right external stimuli. Let me explain the science behind it.
How does EMDR therapy work?
EMDR therapy is broadly composed of two sections: Desensitization and Reprocessing. As the first two letters suggest, it uses Eye Movement to achieve that.
In a nutshell, external stimuli of eye movement are used to engage the brain. With the brain engaged, the traumatic experience is “relived” with the help of guided and detailed instructions from the therapist.
As this happens, new memories and thoughts are included and imprinted, lowering the distress and the beliefs connected to the traumatic memories and the experience itself. When the trauma is re-experienced in a safe environment and new awarenesses are included, the brain can more easily heal and incorporate closure, allowing the client to move past anxious thoughts or experiences.
Check out our step by step overview.
What can EMDR therapy help with?
EMDR therapy has been used over the past 30 years to lower (and eliminate) symptoms of PTSD and trauma. Eye desensitization therapy was initially used for treating only PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and C-PTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder.)
With time and practice, it has been well documented and proved that EMDR is also highly successful in helping with anxiety, panic disorders, phobias, and even depression.
EMDR therapy for anxiety helps clients face traumatic anxious experiences, or go over future potential anxious situations, allowing them to “expose” themselves to triggering situations while staying safe in the therapist’s office. During this exposure, they can also work on their beliefs and incorporate a healthier mindset in a relatively short period.
Can EMDR therapy help with anxiety?
I have used EMDR therapy for anxiety for years now, and hundreds of happy clients vouch for its success. Working with generalized anxiety, performance anxiety, social anxiety, and panic, I have discovered that anxiety is essentially a set of negative, distressing thinking habits that tend to ruminate and fortify themselves. These thinking habits are fixed and can focus on the past, present, or future, and they can both come from past experiences and imagined potential situations.
EMDR therapy treatment focuses on the root of the anxious symptoms. It improves both thinking patterns and somatic anxious symptoms like shallow breathing, gastrointestinal discomfort, increased perspiration, or chest pain.
In one research, 4 people with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) were treated with EMDR for 15 sessions. After the full treatment, half of the participants had anxiety symptoms that were below the diagnostic level, essentially meaning that they didn’t have the diagnosis anymore. The other two participants had a complete remission of the anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, the benefits of EMDR therapy were long-lasting and all clients maintained their positive trends 2 months after the treatments. This study is just one example of the numerous research that showcase the efficiency of EMDR for anxiety.
How does EMDR therapy help with anxiety?
The best EMDR therapy for anxiety follows an appropriate set of stages.
In the first stage, I explore the patient's history to gather important information regarding the anxiety, symptoms, past experiences, and anything else relevant to the client and their condition. This stage is also used to plan the treatment and the goals that we want to achieve during the treatment.
In the second stage, we prepare for the EMDR treatment, focusing on the framework and the coping skills that are at our disposal.
In the third stage, we do an assessment of the current belief systems, the feelings, thoughts, body sensations, and mental images that the client has about his or her anxiety. We also do a scale to measure how comfortable are clients with the new beliefs we try to incorporate.
In the fourth stage, we do desensitization with the help of bilateral stimulation. The client thinks about the traumatic experiences or anxious fantasies, while I guide them. With this process, we lower the intensity of the stressful and anxious thoughts and emotions.
The fifth stage employs the same steps from the previous stage, while positive, adaptive beliefs such as “I can manage this” or “I’m able to talk to strangers” are installed and implemented.
In the last stage, a recap is done to ensure that the body feels okay with the new adaptive beliefs and that the somatic symptoms are further processed. This stage also includes ending stabilization of the client, if needed, as well as final feedback and evaluation of the session itself.
The benefits of an EMDR session are usually felt right away, since the whole process continuously focuses on the body and how the client feels, while the anxious thoughts and emotions gradually subside and the adaptive positive beliefs gain strength.
How long does it take for EMDR to work for anxiety?
So, how many EMDR sessions are needed for anxiety? Well, the answer is not a straightforward one. Although most clients report physical and mental improvements after the first EMDR session, only consistency and dedication bring lifelong results.
How long does EMDR take to work for anxiety, mainly depends on the nature of the anxiety and the anxious triggers, as well as the quantity of anxious situations (both past experiences and imagined potentials) that the person has.
The process of healing anxiety with EMDR is highly individual and depends on a few different parameters. So, some people might experience huge positive changes after only three sessions, while for others it might take 12 sessions until they are ready to completely move on. One certain thing is that each session positively impacts clients and they leave the therapist’s office feeling more relaxed and confident.
What does EMDR for anxiety feel like?
Different people perceive and explain the process in different ways. Some of my clients, especially the ones who are used to traditional talk therapies, initially find the process a little unorthodox. Nonetheless, after the initial wonder and, for some clients - uncertainty, the process becomes quite comfortable and unexpectedly efficient.
My personal experience has told me that clients feel relaxed, relieved, and more positive after each session, and that uplifting mood stays with them for the next couple of days.
Does EMDR for anxiety have any negative side effects?
EMDR is applicable and available for all kinds of clients. Pregnant women and people with eye problems or chronic neurological conditions should consult their medical doctor before starting an EMDR session. With medical and mental health professional advice, the EMDR sessions can be adjusted in length, complexity, or stimulation method to be suitable for these categories.
Individuals who are psychotic or suicidal, or those in active crises or substance-abuse circumstances, should first be stabilized before engaging in an EMDR treatment.
Some clients, depending on their background and brain functioning, might experience headaches or fatigue shortly after the session, while others have vivid dreams. Nonetheless, all of these symptoms are temporary and only indicate that the method is working, and the brain is restructuring its memories and experiences.
Conclusion
EMDR therapy is considered one of the most effective therapies for working through anxiety. With the help of eye movement and bilateral stimulation, along with a good therapist, the fixed negative anxious beliefs, thoughts, and emotions are reprocessed, being substituted with more constructive and positive beliefs.
If not managed, anxiety can worsen over time and overtake numerous life areas of the life of the anxious person. This is why it’s essential to work on the anxiety and elevate the symptoms as soon as possible. EMDR, in the hands of an experienced and highly professional therapist, can be a wonderful tool to help the process be timely and efficient.
Contact us today to take the first steps in healing.
References
American Psychiatric Association (2024). American Adults Express Increasing Anxiousness in Annual Poll; Stress and Sleep are Key Factors Impacting Mental Health. American Psychiatric Association.
Shapiro, F. (2017). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures. The Guilford Press.
Gauvreau, P., Bouchard, S., (2008). Preliminary Evidence for the Efficacy of EMDR in Treating Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research Vol 2 Issue 1.