EMDR
The Mind's Filing Cabinet: An easy way to understand EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Imagine that your brain is like a well-organized office with a large filing cabinet. This filing cabinet represents your memory system, and its job is to store all of your life's experiences. This internal filing system is what we call the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model—your brain's natural way of learning from and making sense of your experiences.
The Organized Files: Everyday Memories
On a normal day, when you have a new experience, your brain processes it, learns from it, and then neatly files it away in the appropriate drawer in your filing cabinet. These "files" are memories that are properly stored. When you recall them, they feel like they are in the past and don't cause you much distress. You can open the drawer, look at the memory, and then close it again, feeling in control.
The Chaotic Pile: Traumatic Memories
Now, imagine something overwhelming, stressful, or traumatic happens. It's as if a storm has hit your stack of papers that you were trying to file in your office. Instead of being neatly filed, these papers are crumpled, disorganized, and left scattered on the floor.
Because this “chaotic pile” was never properly filed, it constantly gets in the way. Every time you walk by, you might trip over it. This is similar to how an unprocessed traumatic memory can intrude on your present life. The memory doesn't feel like it's in the past; instead, it can be easily
triggered, causing you to re-experience the intense emotions, physical sensations, and distressing thoughts associated with the original event. These "stuck" memories can make it difficult to distinguish between the past and the present.
How EMDR Helps: The Expert Organizer
EMDR therapy is like hiring an expert organizer to come into your office and help you finally sort through that chaotic pile of papers. The therapist, acting as the organizer, doesn't throw the papers away—EMDR does not erase memories. Instead, EMDR helps you pick up each crumpled paper, smooth it out, and file it in its proper place in the cabinet.
The back-and-forth eye movements (or other forms of bilateral stimulation like taps or tones) used in EMDR act like a catalyst in this organizing process. It's believed that this stimulation is similar to the natural processing that occurs during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, helping
your brain to "unstick" the memory and reprocess it properly.
As the memory gets filed correctly, it becomes integrated with the other, more adaptive information in your filing system. The emotional charge is neutralized. While you will still remember the event, it will no longer feel so disruptive or distressing to recall. It becomes just another file in your cabinet that you can choose to look at without it overwhelming you.
In essence, EMDR helps your brain's natural information processing system get back on track, allowing you to learn from the past experience and store it in a way that is no longer harmful to your present well-being.