Tips To Prepare Before Your EMDR Therapy - And To Unwind After
EMDR as a therapy process is a holistic one and makes sure that all parts of the client’s psyche can incorporate the changes. With that, we certainly want our clients to feel prepared for an EMDR therapy session. If you find yourself asking “How can I prepare for an EMDR session”, this blog post is for you!
Without further ado, here are some tips to help you prepare before your EMDR therapy session, and help you unwind after it. For more questions feel free to contact us or read more in our FAQ.
What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy is a form of psychotherapy, initially developed in the 1980s by psychologist Francine Shapiro, after noticing that people can more easily think or talk about their trauma and negative experiences while they rapidly move their eyes from side to side.
After a lot of research and methodology perfection, she came up with Eye Movement Desensitization (EMD) therapy. In 1991, she also added the word Reprocessing (R) to address the cognitive changes included in the process.
In a nutshell, EMDR uses eye movement, tapping, or audio stimuli, to engage your brain into a sensory activity. In the meantime, it tackles your memory of traumatic experiences, desensitizes you, and replaces those memories with beliefs that are more constructive or less restraining for you.
EMDR is an evidence-based therapy, able to help lower symptoms of PTSD, trauma-related difficulties, depression and low self-esteem, anxiety, panic disorders, and a lot of other mental health difficulties. Numerous studies (EMDR Institiute, Inc.) have put EMDR as one of the most successful therapies that can bring the client relief from emotional distress only after a couple of sessions.
What can EMDR therapy help with?
When Shapiro first came up with EMDR therapy, she used it to resolve trauma and traumatic events and their lingering conditions like PTSD or C-PTSD.
Today, EMDR therapy is used for a lot of conditions where it has shown itself to be effective. They include:
Sexual, emotional, mental or physical abuse or neglect
Physical injury or a life-altering condition
Being a victim of a crime or a violent crime
Loss of a loved one and grief
Fear and loss after a natural disaster
Loss of a job or financial stress
Depression and depressive episodes
Anxiety, panic, or phobias
Witnessing a crime or a violent accident
Self-image and self-esteem issues
Every person is unique, and so are their background, mindset, traumatic experiences, and beliefs. The length and complexity of the EMDR process varies based on the particular case and what it needs.
Do you need to prepare for an EMDR session?
Well, that depends on you and your own needs. You don’t need anything particular before starting your EMDR session. EMDR focuses on you and your own experiences, so everything you need for the session already exists in your memory.
Nonetheless, the topic of therapeutic work is trauma and traumatic experiences, and this can be triggering for a lot of people. Recalling and talking about trauma is always hard, even when you’re sharing that with your therapist and working to fix it. If you tend to get strong emotional reactions when you think or talk about your traumatic experiences, it might be best to practice a few self-care routines before the start of the session. In the next part of this blog, we will talk more about those self-care acts.
The therapist will be here to support you each step of the way. He or she will also tell you everything you need to know about the process itself and answer any questions you might have.
How to prepare for an EMDR therapy session
Since EMDR therapy can be emotionally exhaustive at times (before it gets better,) you might want to engage in some self-soothing activities before the start of the session. Here are some tips for how to prepare for an EMDR session:
Self-Care Routine
Before you start your EMDR session, make sure that you’ve nourished and rested yourself. Healthy meals, hydration, a good night's rest, and relaxation can help your mind and body function optimally during the EMDR session. With that, you will get the most benefit out of the session.
Abstain from substances
Be sober from alcohol and illegal substances for at least 24 hours before the session. If you have a prescribed medication therapy, make sure to share that with your EMDR therapist and tell them about all of the medications you might be taking, as some of them might interfere with the EMDR process and disrupt the healing.
If you have been diagnosed with a disorder and take medication for it, your therapist should collaborate with your psychiatrist and make sure that you are getting the best care possible.
Prepare mentally
For EMDR therapy to work (as with any other kind of psychotherapy) it’s important that the client believes that the therapy can help them and engage in it to the best of their abilities. So, come to the EMDR session with an open mind and engage as openly as possible. It’s normal (even expected) to be nervous as you start EMDR therapy for the first time. After all, EMDR is an unusual form of psychotherapy, and those who are used to traditional talk therapy might need a session or two to get adjusted.
To prepare, you can come up with a list of close personal relationships and positive memories from your life. It’s completely fine if you’re not able to, though. Your qualified and experienced EMDR therapist can help you come up with it once you start the process and get to the resourcing phase.
Bring your comfort item
To feel more comfortable and secure, it might be good to bring a piece of clothing, jewelry, personal item, trinket, or anything else that you like or find comforting. Communicate this need with your therapist, and you might even be able to bring your pet if their office is pet-friendly.
What to expect after an EMDR session?
EMDR therapy has different phases of the process and they all take different amounts of time for different individuals with different backgrounds. So, there is no rule of what exactly might happen for you personally, after an EMDR session. Clients report everything from mild headaches due to difficult processing, to great feelings of relief and inner peace. The most important thing in EMDR is to trust your therapist and feel comfortable expressing yourself during your sessions.
After the whole EMDR therapeutic process is done, you should feel great relief and ease of any psychological difficulties. Depending on your background and the process itself, you still might benefit from traditional counseling or therapy to further reinforce and fortify your new mindset. Nonetheless, EMDR psychotherapy should be able to help you have a more positive view of life and experience less distress.
What to do after an EMDR therapy session
If you’ve never done an EMDR therapy session before, it’s normal to ask yourself if there is something you need to do after the session. While there isn’t anything required to do after an EMDR session, many clients have found their own ways to unwind and relax after emotionally charged sessions.
Here are some examples of what to do after an EMDR therapy session:
Make a re-evaluation and give yourself closure
After the session, some clients like to do a re-cap and re-evaluation of the whole process. This process can include writing down the most important aspects of the process or re-evaluating the changes in thinking, feeling, or acting. Furthermore, you can also focus on the ways that these changes can affect your overall life satisfaction, or come up with a plan to deliberately use these new beliefs to affect another life area.
At the end of the whole EMDR therapeutic process, you might feel a need to write a letter to yourself or your therapist, expressing your thoughts and feelings about the therapy process. This can be a helpful way to feel a solid sense of closure and to acknowledge the hard work you did.
Engage in healthy information processing
In addition to re-evaluating, you can also do healthy information processing. This might include engaging in activities like journaling, mindfulness, physical exercise, or sharing the details of your session with a trusted friend.
For example, you can write a letter to a deceased loved one, to your future self, to your therapist, or anyone you like. You don’t necessarily need to send the letter out, this exercise serves for your own thought “dump” and expression of the effects of the session. Similarly, you can also do a list of improvements you’ve done, or a list of the future achievements that you strive for.
Relax and rest
EMDR sessions can be highly emotional and sometimes, draining. Make sure that you relax and unwind after a session, if you need to recharge.
This can include relaxing activities, laid-back conversations, or gentle movement exercises like walking, stretching, or yoga.
Stay nourished and hydrated
Aside from recharging your mind, you also need to recharge your body. Nourish yourself with healthy food and plenty of water. Nutrition and hydration will support the brain in the process of integrating the new neural connections done during the session.
Reach out to your support system
If you feel the need, you can also reach out to your family, friends, or colleagues, or play with your pet. Positive and supporting conversations can help you feel more grounded, centered, and supported by those around you.
Engage in uplifting activities
To unwind after a hard EMDR session, you can engage in some of your relaxed hobbies or uplifting activities you enjoy. Whether it is drawing, journaling, painting, or dancing, creative expression can help you better process emotions and integrate new experiences.
Mindfulness, guided meditations, or breathing exercises can also help you center yourself and be grounded in the present, process and release your emotions, and focus on your sensations.
Avoid overstimulation
After a hard EMDR session, it might be best to avoid overstimulating activities like loud or intensive movies, demanding exercise, activities that raise your adrenalin levels, or difficult conversations. To aid your brain in integrating the therapy seamlessly, it is best to create a calm, relaxing atmosphere.
Continue traditional therapy
Although EMDR therapy is highly effective for treating trauma and traumatic experiences, depending on the circumstances, some clients may still need classical talk therapy to best integrate the experience and continue reinforcing their new habits, beliefs, and actions.
I highly recommend continuing personal self-growth, to make an everlasting change and enable yourself to continuously adapt to new life circumstances, as they come.
How to get the most out of your EMDR therapy experience
To get the most out of your EMDR therapy, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Find a suitable therapist
It’s very important that your EMDR therapist is certified, professional, and experienced. Working on trauma is a lengthy, often exhausting process, and you will feel a lot safer if you collaborate with an experienced professional.
Nervousness is normal
Being nervous is normal, especially if you’re undergoing EMDR therapy for the first time. Even after you get used to the process itself, working with trauma by actively addressing past traumatic experiences will, most likely, bring negative emotions. Your therapist will help you and equip you with coping strategies and relaxation techniques, so you can navigate those negative emotional charges, as they come.
It’s okay (and therapeutic!) to be vulnerable
For trauma survivors, or for people who battle anxiety or depression, it might be difficult to be vulnerable and completely open about their past experiences or everyday difficulties. Nonetheless, this is one of the most important aspects of therapy - to be vulnerable and to trust your therapist with your vulnerability.
At no point during EMDR will you be forced to do something that you don’t like or are not ready to do, but in order to be able to express this, you need to be completely honest and open with your therapist. Trust me; they will respect you and your boundaries at all times. EMDR and your therapist can help you only if you are completely open and honest about your experiences, thoughts, and emotions, even if that means you need more time before opening up about a certain experience.
The American Counseling Association (Tapping into the benefits of EMDR, 2021) names three main barriers that might prevent EMDR therapy from working with some clients. So, EMDR therapy is less likely to be successful if clients are emotionally closed or detached, if they are not able to release the emotions connected to the traumatic experience, and if they have an internal conflict about resolving their traumatic experience (for example, healing from the loss of a parent may seem to them like abandoning their parent.) In any of these cases, the client needs to be honest and share their thoughts and emotions, so he/she and the therapist can jointly come up with a constructive plan for moving forward.
Develop and maintain healthy habits
Having healthy eating and exercising habits, as well as skills like breathing exercises, meditation or fulfilling hobbies can all help you gain more resourcefulness before therapy and unwind after a therapy session. Developing and maintaining healthy habits also aids your long-term physical and mental health.
Conclusion
EMDR, as a psychotherapy method, doesn’t require a lot from your end at the beginning of the process. Nonetheless, if you want to calm your restlessness regarding the whole process and its benefits, there are a few things you can do. For example, you can practice self-care habits, abstain from any alcohol or non-prescribed medication, prepare mentally, and even take a comfort item with you to the session.
To help you unwind after the session, you can engage in a reevaluation of the session, relax and rest, stay nourished and hydrated, talk to your loved ones, engage in uplifting activities, further process information in a healthy way, avoid overstimulation, and continue your traditional talk therapy to reinforce the effects of EMDR.
If you’re looking for an experienced EMDR therapist in Nashville, reach out to our team today.
References
What is EMDR?. EMDR Institute - EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING THERAPY. (2024, January 3). https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/
Phillips, L. (2021, September). Tapping into the benefits of EMDR. www.counseling.org. https://www.counseling.org/publications/counseling-today-magazine/article-archive/article/legacy/tapping-into-the-benefits-of-emdr