EMDR vs. Hypnosis: What You Should Know

With­in the last few decades, Eye move­ment desen­si­ti­za­tion repro­cess­ing ther­a­py, or EMDR ther­a­py, has gained pop­u­lar­i­ty for treat­ing men­tal health con­di­tions. It’s not uncom­mon for some­one to con­fuse EMDR with hyp­nother­a­py. Many peo­ple often feel as if both treat­ment meth­ods are exper­i­men­tal or inef­fec­tive. Nei­ther of those are true. Each has its ben­e­fits and ways of help­ing some­one. How­ev­er, it’s impor­tant to remem­ber that the two have major dif­fer­ences.

If you’re ask­ing your­self what is EMDR? You’re not alone. EMDR ther­a­py is a treat­ment for trau­ma as well as depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and pan­ic dis­or­der, to name a few men­tal health con­di­tions. EMDR ther­a­py has been linked to help­ing those who have expe­ri­enced some­thing trau­mat­ic. This tech­nique uses the patient’s rapid and rhyth­mic eye move­ments with the help of a ther­a­pist. It’s shown that the move­ments can help decrease the pow­er of mem­o­ries that may be emo­tion­al­ly charged due to pre­vi­ous trau­mat­ic events.

Some of the main goals and focus­es include work­ing to change the thoughts, behav­iors, or emo­tions that occurred dur­ing the trau­ma. It can also allow your brain to go through a nat­ur­al heal­ing process.

EMDR ther­a­py is an ongo­ing treat­ment process that involves eight phas­es.

1. Gath­er­ing patient his­to­ry and oth­er rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion is key to your health­care provider deter­min­ing if EMDR is like­ly to help you. It also involves dis­cussing the events you want to focus on with ther­a­py.
2. Edu­ca­tion and prepa­ra­tion. In this step, your health­care provider or ther­a­pist will help explain EMDR ses­sions and what you can antic­i­pate with­in them.
3. Patient assess­ment. Your ther­a­pist helps you deter­mine what themes in mem­o­ries you want to work on dur­ing EMDR.
4. Repro­cess­ing and desen­si­ti­za­tion. This is when your ther­a­pist will acti­vate the mem­o­ry you’re focus­ing on. You will iden­ti­fy one or more spe­cif­ic neg­a­tive thoughts, feel­ings, body sen­sa­tions, or even images.
5. Instal­la­tion. In this phase, you’re focused on being pos­i­tive about the belief you’re try­ing to build while pro­cess­ing the mem­o­ry.
6. Body scan. Here, you’re going to focus on how you feel in your body. This will main­ly be any symp­toms you might feel as you think about the neg­a­tive mem­o­ry expe­ri­ence.
7. Clo­sure and sta­bi­liza­tion. In this step, you’ll talk with your ther­a­pist about what to expect between ses­sions. The ther­a­pist will also dis­cuss how to han­dle and process neg­a­tive thoughts between ses­sions.
8. Reeval­u­a­tion and con­tin­u­ing care. Dur­ing this step, you’ll talk to your ther­a­pist about your progress and how you’re cur­rent­ly feel­ing. This is when you’ll deter­mine if you need addi­tion­al ses­sions, and they will help you explore feel­ings you may have in the future. They will also help you fig­ure out how you would like to han­dle things when they occur.

What Is Hypnosis?

In many cas­es, hyp­nother­a­py is used along­side oth­er forms of med­ical or psy­cho­log­i­cal treat­ment. It can be used to treat sub­stance abuse, bad habits, mood dis­or­ders, anx­i­ety, pan­ic attacks, or PTSD. Also, it helps with pain man­age­ment or med­ical con­cerns, includ­ing skin con­di­tions, gas­troin­testi­nal issues, or auto-immune dis­or­ders. It is also effec­tive for help­ing peo­ple with prob­lems such as weight loss or smok­ing.

Many peo­ple believe that hyp­no­sis means you are not aware of what is going on, but that couldn’t be fur­ther from the truth. In clin­i­cal hyp­nother­a­py, the patient is in a ther­a­peu­tic and calm envi­ron­ment. The ther­a­pist helps guide the patient to a focused and relaxed state by using sooth­ing imagery and ver­bal rep­e­ti­tion. Once in this state, the ther­a­pist can help guide the patient through a prob­lem by releas­ing prob­lem­at­ic thoughts and respons­es.

The goal will be to help con­sid­er and pos­si­bly accept sug­gest­ed alter­na­tives before hav­ing the patient return to nor­mal. When the patient returns to nor­mal, the ther­a­pist and patient will dis­cuss what was said, felt, and heard to pre­pare an action plan.

EMDR Utah

As a clin­i­cian who has been trained in EMDR, I have seen it ben­e­fit peo­ple with vary­ing men­tal health con­di­tions and upbring­ings. EMDR is an excel­lent treat­ment inter­ven­tion. Reach out if you want to learn more about the ben­e­fits of EMDR ther­a­py or talk with some­one trained to do EMDR today.

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