EMCG Desensitization and Processing of Psychological Traumas by Eye Movements (Shapiro) - method, technique, description, algorithm, training, application independently.

Method applicable to independent use.

This technique is related to the topic " PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP " / "PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSING".
I can not say something specific about the obvious and obvious results from this method. It seems to be one of those methods that only works sometimes and for some people. And I included it in this journal because of the dozens of methods and techniques that were once seriously tested on myself, this technique (unlike dozens of other "dummies" from NLP, esotericism and psychology) really very clearly showed a couple of times (out of several dozens of approaches) a clear, distinct result. True, these results were not like something "enchanting", but like insight, like a change in point of view, like new knowledge. And if suddenly this method works for you (even 1 time out of 20), then you can move mountains in this life by correctly and patiently applying this method to your goals, tasks, internal blocks, obstacles, etc. What exactly to apply and for what - is in the articles of this LiveJournal.


DPDG - Desensitization and processing by eye movements
The method itself became popular thanks to Francine Shapiro, and it is to her that its discovery and name are attributed. Although before her the same thing happened with the popularizer of NLP Steve Andreas.

In the description here, the method is positioned as for working with a therapist.But it can be quite simply learned (learned) and easy to use on your own - For psychological help yourself (and others) . You can buy a flashlight or a pointer with a laser, and follow the point with your eyes while driving along the wall. You can throw the ball from hand to hand and follow it with your eyes. It is possible, as in the picture below, my client did - glue or tape a ping-pong ball to a stick (about 80 cm), and then, moving this stick from side to side, follow the ball with your eyes. Or, for lovers of mysticism: instead of a ball at the end, you can fit a candle (second picture below). You can also come up with all sorts of suitable options. It is possible without any auxiliary items. Skill comes with practice.



Now about the method.
(information here I compile from various sources)

Desensitization of psychotrauma with the help of eye movement (EMDG)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Processing (EMDR)


Every person at least once in his life heard an old proverb - "the morning is wiser than the evening." And of course, any person knows that after a good sleep, all the problems and troubles that weighed heavily on the mind the night before are no longer perceived so dramatically in the morning. Why is this happening? What nervous system Does a person do something special during sleep that allows him to “process” numerous, including negative, impressions of the day?

Neuroscientists have an answer to this question. A person's sleep consists of several stages, one of which is accompanied by rapid movements of the eyeballs (by the way, it is in this phase that the sleeper sees dreams). In this stage of sleep, the processing of the information (and, first of all, complex, negative, and sometimes traumatic) that a person received during the day takes place.

And what happens if this information-processing system of the brain fails for some reason, is blocked? In these cases, negative information, as it were, “freezes”, gets stuck in the neural networks of the brain, its processing does not occur, and it begins to injure a person, causing anxiety, intrusive thoughts, unpleasant physical sensations, in a word - neuroses.

Method

The method is based on the use of natural biological methods of information processing that the human nervous system possesses. Over the years of its existence, the method has proven its high efficiency in the treatment of psychotrauma.

The discovery of the method was preceded by a dramatic story associated with the discovery of cancer in the philologist Francine Shapiro, who at that moment was successfully completing her doctoral dissertation on the poetry of Thomas Hardy. The fatal diagnosis became a milestone in her life. She focused entirely on finding remedies for the disease and its devastating psychological effects. Shapiro enrolled in a doctoral program in clinical psychology and unexpectedly discovered an original method, which she initially used to reduce anxiety and stabilize her own emotional state. Then she began to experiment with other people, achieving positive results. Since Shapiro's focus was on behavioral anxiety reduction, and the main component of the technique was guided eye movement, she named the new procedure Eye Movement Desensitization, or FDD for short. Shapiro, having recovered from cancer, modified her method by 1989 and began to teach it to clinicians. Through her research, she came to the conclusion that the optimal procedure using eye movements involves simultaneous desensitization and cognitive restructuring of traumatic memories.

Quote:
The basis of the method is that the phase of the so-called “REM sleep” is reproduced in reality, during which information is processed in the nervous system. This is a very effective method of working with psychological traumas and psychological assistance, since the natural mechanism for processing psychological traumas that exists in the human psyche is used. The effect comes very quickly and is characterized by great stability.

What is the essence of the method?

The essence of the EMDR method is to activate the blocked brain system responsible for this important information processing. In other words, with the help of a therapist (or independently), the client does in a psychotherapeutic session what his information-processing system of the brain did not do at night.

The method is based on the model of accelerated information processing, according to which all people have a special psychophysiological mechanism, called the information processing system, which ensures the maintenance of mental balance (Shapiro, 1995). When this adaptive system is activated, any information is processed, including emotional information related to stress and survival problems.

These processes normally occur in a person at the stage of sleep, accompanied by rapid movements of the eyeballs (REM sleep phase).

If for some reason the information processing system is blocked, the processing and neutralization of traumatic experience does not occur. At the same time, negative information, as it were, is “frozen” and freezes on for a long time in the part of the neural network it occupies in its original (conditioned by traumatic experience) form.Neuronal structures that store dysfunctional material unchanged are isolated from other parts of the cerebral cortex. Therefore adaptive ( psychotherapeutic) the information cannot connect with the stuck and detached information about the traumatic event, which means that new learning does not occur.Under the influence of various external and internal factors, one way or another reminiscent of trauma, an isolated neural network is restimulated (activated), which leads to the release of information stored in it: visual images, sounds, physical sensations, taste, smell, affect and ideas and beliefs associated with a traumatic event. At the same time, the subject not only vividly imagines his picture, but re-experiences the whole gamut of negative emotions and uncomfortable physical sensations.

Thus, the lack of adequate processing leads to the fact that the whole complex of negative experiences associated with trauma continues to be provoked by current events, which can manifest itself in the form of nightmares, obsessive thoughts, avoidant behavior, autonomic disorders, etc.

The essence of the method is artificial activation the process of accelerated processing and neutralization of traumatic memories, as well as any other negative information blocked in the neural networks of the brain. It is assumed that eye movements or alternative forms of stimulation(alternate tapping on the palms of the hands or snapping the fingers first at one ear, then at the other ear), used during the EMDR procedure, trigger processes similar to those occurring in sleep, in the phase of rapid movement of the eyeballs.

The method provides quick access to isolated traumatic material, which is subjected to accelerated processing. Memories that have a high negative emotional charge transform into a more neutral form, and the patient's ideas and beliefs corresponding to them acquire an adaptive character.

During the EMDR procedure, when the patient is asked to evoke a traumatic memory, the therapist (or the person himself, if he practices independently) establishes a connection between consciousness and the area of ​​the brain in which information about the trauma is stored (i.e., directs conscious attention to the image, or feeling, or memory, etc., which is associated with trauma). Eye movements activate the information processing system and restore its balance. With each new series eye movements, traumatic information moves, moreover, in an accelerated manner, further along the corresponding neurophysiological pathways until a positive resolution of this information is achieved.

One of the key assumptions in EMDR is that activating the processing of traumatic memories will naturally direct those memories to the adaptive information needed for positive resolution. Thus, the model of accelerated processing of information is characterized by the idea of ​​psychological self-healing.

* Shapiro (1995) candidly admits that the accelerated information processing model is only a working hypothesis that helps to understand how exactly the GRDD works. It is assumed that this model may be revised in the future based on clinical and laboratory observations. As a result of numerous studies of EMDR, it is now established that eye movements are only one form of bilateral stimulation and are not an integral part of treatment.

Indications for using the method
Francine Shapiro called her technique the Eye Movement Desensitization and Trauma Treatment Technique (EMT). The word "desensitization" can be translated as "desensitization". Psychotherapists around the world today, in addition to classical methods use it in working with those who have experienced emotional trauma, sexual violence, the horrors of war, became a victim of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, saw the death of other people. Situations like this go beyond the ordinary human experience. If such a traumatic event happened at a time when a person was especially vulnerable, his psyche cannot cope with this experience on its own. Months and even years later, he may be haunted by obsessive thoughts and painful memories. Their images are so vivid that every time a person feels the realism of what is happening: he does not just remember, but again and again experiences the same horror, pain, fear and helplessness. The DPDH technique in just a few sessions can improve the condition. It also helps in the treatment of various phobias, addictions, depression, anorexia and even schizophrenia on initial stage this disease.

Contraindications a little: severe mental conditions, some diseases of the heart and eyes, circulatory failure of the brain, intraocular pressure, pregnancy (?), any condition in which it is necessary to avoid stress.

How is the session

First, the client, together with the therapist (or independently), finds earliest and most intense (!! regarding "intensive" - ​​different schools of psychology and psychologists//psychotherapists may have very different opinions and approaches to this indication. Some suggest starting with the least intensive) a traumatic memory that could very well be source, root the problem with which the client sought psychotherapeutic help.

The therapist then asks the client to focus on that negative memory.

Client remembers and at the same time follows direction of the therapist's hand. It is clear that at the same time the client's eyeballs move, involving more and more new areas of the brain in the processing of traumatic material, which is quickly “grinded” at the same time, losing its painful strength. And what is important - painful memories do not just lose their emotional coloring and significance, they automatically begin to be perceived from a different angle of view, are laid out in the mind "on the shelves", becoming part of the valuable life baggage.

During the procedure, the specialist controls emotional condition and is a reliable "guide" through negative memories. In addition, there is a psychosomatic assessment of the influence of emotions and the elimination of negative sensations.

Emotions are processed to a gradual weakening, while there is a kind of learning that helps to use them in the future.

The processing of negative ideas during the exercise allows positive, confidence-inspiring emotions and ideas to form new images, which leads to the emergence of more adequate forms of behavior.

After each session, the person's sensory experience is reviewed, producing a variety of reports of images, thoughts, or bodily sensations as the subject being worked on and the person's original request are corrected.


Applicability

This technique is applicable both to current traumatic states and to states from the past.

The use of the "fresh tracks" technique immediately after a traumatic event (for example, after a catastrophe) allows clients to quickly return to a normal state and eliminate the impact of psychological trauma on their future lives.

With psychological help in working with chronic conditions, it is necessary to achieve associations with them, since such states are often encapsulated. For example, a person may completely forget a traumatic event and the first manifestation of the state caused by this event. Often this manifests itself as the disappearance of segments of memories. The person says: “I was told that there was an event, but I don’t remember anything.” And the fact that the old state is dissociated does not exclude its influence on a person's life, on his key behavioral strategies.

Another application of the technique is as an addition to any others, in cases where a negative state interferes with work or for crushing generalized negative states.

This technique is also applicable to relieve unaccountable and constant anxiety caused by the expectation of a significant event or being in a dangerous, according to a person, situation.

Main and additional information there is now a lot on the net and books by Shapiro and NLP on this topic. Whoever needs it will find)

Essence.
Working out the "problem"
1. Select the problem you would like to work on (if you have found the source / root of the problem, then this is generally good!).
2. Rate it on a 10-point scale ("0" - does not bother at all, "10" - the most severe anxiety / suboptimal)
3. What picture, emotion, feeling, sensation, belief (about oneself, about others, about the world, about life, etc.) is there when you think about this problem, perceive and / or experience it?
4. Keeping your attention on this problem / on the image of the problem (picture, emotion, feeling, feeling, thought), start moving your eyes. 22-24 times per scheme.
!! In the original original of the DPG technique, it is proposed to work only with visual picture the problem/situation being worked on. But it makes sense to involve and consistently work through the other components of the problem - audio, emotions, feelings, bodily sensations, thoughts.
!! Different consultants may technically conduct and / or recommend this technique in different ways. Choose what suits you best.
Main options:
- think about a problem / perceive a problem (a picture of a problem, a picture of a memory, a feeling, etc.) only between rounds oculomotor movements;
- think about the problem (or, for example, ask a question that you want to get an answer to) and move your eyes - simultaneously;
- keep a picture of a problem (or a picture of a memory) in your mind in front of and move your eyes
- an imaginary picture move together with eyes, while Special attention focusing on areas of motion where the picture gets stuck or disappears.


5.
6. Give your eyes a little rest.
7. Do several approaches.
8.
- what do you think about your trouble now.
Now rate your level of anxiety on a 10-point scale.
9. Bring the assessment to an acceptable level for yourself, going through the entire cycle repeatedly as much as necessary (and maybe even stretching this study over several days).

In the same way, a positive, beneficial self-determination is "embedded".
1. What would you like to have instead of Problems?
2. What picture, emotion, feeling, sensation, belief (about yourself, about others, about the world, about life, etc.) is there when you think about this new, positive self-determination, perceive and / or experience it?
3. Evaluate your compliance now with this new positive self-determination ("0" - I do not correspond at all, "10" - I correspond absolutely 100%)
4. Keeping your attention on this new self-determination / on the image of a new self-determination (picture, emotion, feeling, sensation), start moving your eyes. 22-24 times per scheme.

5. At the end of the series, throw everything out of your head and take a deep breath - exhale.
6. Give your eyes a little rest.
7. Do several approaches.
8. Then return to the image and explore:
What are you feeling about this image right now?
- what do you think about your new image / self-determination now.
Evaluate now the level of compliance on a 10-point scale.
9. Bring your rating to an acceptable level

, going through the whole cycle again as much as needed (and maybe even stretching this study for several days).

"Clean Up" Possible Remaining Aspects
Explore if there are any suboptimalities, doubts, etc. on the subject matter. If any are found, work them out according to the DDG procedure.

This elaboration/psychological assistance technique is recommended for application both to current traumatic conditions, and to states from the past and from the future.

Important note!

Unfortunately, the usual version of the dpdg method in most cases does not give almost any intelligible results to adults from its use. And when I see how some Kovalev in his video, moving his fingers in front of the video camera for a couple of minutes, proudly declares to the audience "Now breathe in, breathe out, your problem is solved!" This is at least confusing to me.

But the chances of working through problems (even with such a dubious method) can, nevertheless, be slightly improved. Now a few words about this.

The point is this. If some life experience has remained unprocessed and / or cannot be processed in any way (including something about the future, for example), then there is some reason (or several reasons) for this, which is inside this experience, but you still haven't recognized it and/or haven't considered it seriously. For example, in some situation in the past that still cannot let go of a person, the underlying reason may be that in this situation there was an unexpected destruction of some important personal belief for a person, or his important personal value, or some an important expectation or surprise, or something else like that ( * ). The reasons may be different, you need to find your own. This reason - why the situation//experience got "stuck" and could not fit in as just life experience - needs to be found. It needs to be realized. Freeze as freeze frame. And then work with her. So it will be more correct. Well, even better, it is to go deeper into the chain of reasons further.
The same applies to states about future "predictable" situations.

(* ) And on the basis of this at that moment a person could make some fateful conclusion or decision, for example. But this is the next "chain".

There is an additional idea for this method, which is to try to work in turn with each of the eyes. This can especially be tried on material that "does not want" to be worked out at all. To do this, you need to alternately close your eyes with your hand, bandage, or just close your eyes. And after such work, see if any of the parties brings improvement, and if so, which one. And then he will focus more on this side in the study of the topic taken.

By the way, observations from practice:
- such eye movements can be used to cheer up, get out of the "blunt", wake up, activate the cerebral hemispheres, etc.;
- if you want to yawn during this practice, then yawn to your health, do not suppress;
- it makes sense in several approaches to stretch the eye muscles straight all the way to the extreme points of the range(unless, of course, for medical reasons you have no contraindications).
- answers to questions or a problem may not come immediately, but after a while.

A simple but quite effective technique by Francine Shapiro, the EMDH method (desensitization through eye movement), initially worked well in the psychotherapy of post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes, the EMDR technique is used on its own as a method of erasing emotional memories that bring mental suffering to a person.

As can be seen from the figure, the method of EMDR, desensitization and processing of psychotrauma by eye movement, resembles the principles of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), where each eye movement (direction of gaze) is directly related to human representational systems (vision, hearing, kinesthetics). However, the Shapiro method (DPG) does not focus on human sensors (sense organs).

How to use the EMDR method on your own to process psychotrauma, severe stress from the past

Serious stresses experienced in the past, emotional experiences, psychotraumas, such as, for example, rape, military operations, natural disasters, accidents and catastrophes, leave a deep mark on the human psyche. The EMDR method will help you erase emotional, traumatic memories on your own, processing them through eye movement into something neutral, or even positive.

EMPG is independently used in those cases when you are clearly aware that the cause of your current (here and now) experiences, reactions to stress, fears and phobias .., other neurotic states is a psychotrauma, experienced severe stress from the past.

Using the DPG technique on your own - step by step instructions

So, to use the DPG technique on your own, you need to sit comfortably in front of a free wall. You can turn on relaxing music (see music therapy), the lighting should not be bright, for better relaxation You can breathe in deeply with your belly.

Take a small flashlight or laser pointer with your fingers, which you will drive along the wall opposite.
Prepare in advance your traumatic memory that you want to process through eye movement (“hang” in trauma, in order to avoid activating strong experiences, not yet, just know what you will work with).


There will be three steps in total, performing which you will be able to independently process your psycho-traumatic events from the past, thereby improving your psycho-emotional state in the present.
  1. step: Relaxing and pointing a light pointer (flashlight) at the opposite wall, with a slight movement of one fingers (not the whole hand), you slowly move the beam along the wall to the left and right (direct gaze), fix your eyes on the light spot and move them together with the beam - left and right .

    Your gaze is focused on the spot of light - this is the foreground. At the same time, try to see in the background, looking as if through a wall, what happened to you in the past. At the same time, processing psychotraumatic information, imagining something neutral or positive in fantasy.

    Keep doing EMDR for 3-5-10 minutes until you feel that the negative past is gradually dissipating, turning into something normal.

    Take a sharp deep breath in and out, and look around the room, alternately focusing your attention on different objects. Rate your emotional state on a 100% scale: 0 - not at all negative emotion- 100% - strong emotion.

    You can move on to the next step after rest, or the next day, depending on your energy and emotionality.

  2. step: You do everything the same, only the movement of the flashlight and with it the eyes - in the form of a recumbent figure eight (the sign of infinity).
  3. step: The same EMDR technique, but the eye movements are now in a circle (counterclockwise).

Since you will be using the eye movement desensitization method on your own, it may not be possible to completely process the trauma and erase negative emotional memories the first time. Of course, there will be progress, but for a complete processing of stress from the past, it is worth repeating the EMPG technique one more time.

Also, you can ask loved one so that he directs the beam of a flashlight for you, being behind you, out of sight, thereby freeing you from unnecessary psychoenergetic costs.


Attention! If you have several psychological traumas in the past, then before processing emotions, you need to make a list of problems in the form of a hierarchy. And start working with the simplest stressful situations imprinted in the psyche.

“It happens that a certain force seems to push us out of habitual life forcing change,” says Francine Shapiro. “But changes are so abrupt and tragic, as happened to me, that we ourselves are unable to cope with them.”

At the age of 36, Francine, having just defended her doctoral dissertation in English literature, found out that she had cancer. An operation, a divorce from her husband, a long treatment - all these events changed her life forever. The disease receded, but Francine seemed to be frozen between life and death: she was tormented constant fears and obsessive disturbing thoughts, nightmares haunted at night, and during the day everything fell out of hand.

One day, while walking in the park, she noticed that some of the thoughts that bothered her all the time had disappeared. Focusing on them again, Francine realized... that she was not afraid!

As a result of the exercise, the level of anxiety decreased, people were able to more realistically perceive what bothered them.

“I was amazed: as soon as I returned to my anxious thoughts, my eyes began to involuntarily move from side to side and diagonally up and down,” she recalls. - When I moved them intentionally, the pain of heavy memories disappeared. Furthermore, feelings and thoughts in the style of “I am powerless”, “something is wrong with me” were replaced by others: “this is all in the past”, “I have a choice”.

Shapiro asked friends, colleagues, and participants in a psychology seminar she attended to do the same exercise. The results were astonishing: the level of anxiety was reduced, people were able to more realistically perceive what bothered them. So by chance in 1987 a new technique of psychotherapy was discovered.

This event prompted Francine Shapiro to pursue a degree in psychology and complete her thesis in clinical psychology. For several years she has been working at the Institute for Brain Research in Palo Alto (USA). In 2002, she was awarded the Sigmund Freud Prize, the world's most important award in the field of psychotherapy.

Shapiro gave a detailed description of a unique psychotherapeutic technique - the EMDH technique, which is especially effective in the treatment of emotional trauma in the book “Psychotherapy of emotional trauma using eye movements. Basic principles, protocols and procedures”.

What is DPG

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Trauma Processing) is a psychotherapeutic technique that is most often used in the treatment of emotional trauma. Eye movements start the process of natural healing of the human psyche. Since the traumatic event blocks the processes of her self-regulation, the feelings, images, thoughts associated with the painful experience seem to “get stuck” in her. And thanks to DPDH, they begin to be processed at an accelerated rate.

EMDR as a way to work with trauma

Francine Shapiro called her technique the Eye Movement Desensitization and Trauma Treatment Technique (EMT). The word "desensitization" can be translated as "desensitization". Psychotherapists around the world today, in addition to classical methods, use it in their work with those who have experienced emotional trauma, sexual violence, the horrors of war, have been victims of a terrorist attack, natural disasters, or have seen the death of other people.

“Such situations go beyond the ordinary experience of a person,” explains psychotherapist Natalia Rasskazova. “If such a traumatic event happened at a time when a person was especially vulnerable, his psyche cannot cope with this experience on its own.”

Months and even years later, he may be haunted by obsessive thoughts and painful memories. Their images are so vivid that every time a person feels the realism of what is happening: he does not just remember, but again and again experiences the same horror, pain, fear and helplessness. The DPDH technique in just a few sessions can improve the condition. It also helps in the treatment of various phobias, addictions, depression, anorexia and even schizophrenia at the initial stage of this disease. There are few contraindications: severe mental conditions, some diseases of the heart and eyes.

How DPG is used at work

Directed eye movement is the basis of this technique. “Most of us find it difficult to voluntarily control the muscles responsible for eye movements,” explains Francine Shapiro. "It's easier to continue these movements by focusing on the therapist's hand." He usually holds his fingers, pencil, or ruler vertically, 30 to 35 centimeters from the patient's face. He, concentrating on a painful memory or sensation and without interrupting the story, at the same time follows the therapist's hand with his eyes.

Artem is 22 years old, ten years ago he was walking in the park with his mother and brother when they were attacked by hooligans. “All these years I was tormented by terrible memories,” says Artem, “and I had the same nightmare: I’m trying to escape from something terrible, but I can’t move and I feel like I’m falling into some kind of deep, narrow hole … I began to avoid communicating with new people, it seemed to me that everyone was looking at me with condemnation, as if they were saying: “You are worthless, you could not protect yourself and your family.”

Thanks to the EMDR technique, memories are no longer accompanied by strong negative emotions

During the first meeting, the psychotherapist asked Artyom to remember the most terrible episode from that tragic day - when one of the attackers pulled out a knife. “I focused on this scene, following the wand that the therapist held in front of my eyes from left to right. It seemed that I was about to begin to suffocate, as it was before, but I kept seeing the therapist's hand, and it seemed to hold me. A few minutes later, the therapist asked again about what I was seeing and feeling. I described the same scene again, but I felt that the previous emotions had disappeared: I didn’t feel so hurt.”

“There is no magic here,” explains Natalya Rasskazova. - Artem continues psychotherapy, but the first meetings, in which the therapist worked with the help of the EMDH technique, made it possible to remove the sharpness of the experience: in a few sessions, the perception of what happened to him changed. His feeling of "I am a coward and a nonentity" was replaced by confidence: "It is not a shame to survive." Thanks to the EMDR technique, a tragic event becomes one of the many facts of a person's life, memories are no longer accompanied by strong negative emotions.

If eye work is difficult

In some eye conditions (eg, severe myopia) or in a situation where watching the therapist's hand is associated with traumatic memories (eg, parental slapping of the child's face as a child), the therapist uses hand tapping or sounds as a stimulus. . Tapping on the hand is performed as follows: the patient sits down with his hands on his knees, palms up. The therapist (with one or two fingers) alternately rhythmically taps on them. With sound stimulation, he snaps his fingers at one or the other ear of the client at about the same speed as with a series of eye movements.

The principle of operation of the DPD

There is no single answer to the question why this technique is so effective. Psychologists and neuroscientists study and test several hypotheses.

The first of them is a model of accelerated information processing. Francine Shapiro suggests that the mind, like the body, has an innate ability to self-regulate.

“The brain involuntarily processes all the information about what is happening to us, what worries and worries us,” explains Natalya Rasskazova. - It encodes the data, neutralizes it and sends it to storage. This allows the psyche to adapt to the most different situations. But physical and mental trauma, stress block the processes of natural self-regulation. Emotions, images, thoughts, sensations associated with painful memories seem to be stuck in the memory as they were at the time of the traumatic events. As a result, a person not only cannot forget them, but it becomes difficult for him to remember his positive feelings.”

Eye movements activate the natural healing forces of the body itself: they start processes that unblock the neural networks of the brain in which the traumatic experience is “stored”, and it begins to be processed at an accelerated rate.

Eye movements from side to side cause alternate activation of the hemispheres and synchronous processing of information

Francine Shapiro does not exclude that the EMDR technique also activates the processes in the brain that occur in it during the “REM” phase, which is accompanied by active eye movement. At this point, the brain processes the information received during wakefulness and stores it in memory.

In addition, studies show that the EMDR technique synchronizes the rhythms of the cerebral hemispheres.

“They process emotions differently,” continues Natalia Rasskazova. - Left hemisphere deals with what causes positive emotions, right - recycles negative experiences. If we direct our gaze to objects located to our right, this will cause a more positive emotional response than fixing our gaze on objects located to our left. And eye movements from side to side cause alternate activation of the hemispheres and synchronous processing of information.

The controversy surrounding the DDG

From the very moment of its inception, the DPG technique has been the subject of active scientific controversy.

“Many professionals find it difficult to admit that our brain can be “rebooted,” explains Jacques Roque, vice president of the French association of psychotherapists practicing EMDR. Until now, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists have proceeded from the fact that only words that one person uttered and another heard can heal.

ABOUT psychological problems they spoke only in terms of meanings: for those who survived the trauma, it was an encounter with death. But today we understand that essential role the biological work of the brain plays for healing: the psyche is inseparable from its neurological "carrier". It is possible to restart information processing, sometimes in exotic ways that go against conventional wisdom that healing takes time. Maybe we just find it hard to come to terms with the fact that our brain, like any computer, can be reprogrammed?

Who can use this technique at work?

As with any psychotherapy, the client's state of mind may change between sessions. He may "surface" memories of other unpleasant events, for example, from early childhood. That is why only psychotherapists or clinical psychologists should use the EMDR technique, who can, if necessary, provide emergency assistance, including medical.

“But even a well-trained specialist cannot guarantee success when using the EMDR technique with every person,” cautions Francine Shapiro. - It is not a panacea and is most often used in combination with other therapies. But, of course, EMDP helps to relieve the acuteness of the experience in just a few meetings.”