EMDR Therapy in Seattle: What It Is and What Therapy Actually Looks Like
By Brantly Iracleanos, MSW, LICSWAWhen my clients hear “EMDR,” I often find that they imagine a therapist waving their fingers back and forth while the client follows them with their eyes, waving away years of trauma. And, while eye movements are often a part of EMDR, that is only a small piece of what I think makes this therapy meaningful.
My approach to EMDR therapy is more expansive, and rooted firmly in the idea that we are constantly learning from our experiences, finding meaningful ways to adapt and coexist with our sorrow and our triumph.
Oftentimes, these human experiences get integrated in ways that help us grow, to move forward on the path of life with earned wisdom. Other times, particularly after experiences that overwhelm our system, our mind holds onto parts of those memories in ways that remain activated long after the original danger has passed. And sometimes, we have many years of stories and events that interweave together in the tapestry of our psyche that create deep grooves of meaning – for better or worse.
EMDR is one way to work with those experiences and help bring them into the context of the present. For people looking for EMDR therapy in Seattle, this can be one approach to trauma therapy that may be worth exploring with a qualified therapist.
Why Do I Practice EMDR Therapy?
There is a simple answer to this question: because I have experienced it myself.
Many years ago, I was experiencing intense and consuming depression and anxiety related to adolescent trauma and traumatic parental loss. I worked with a therapist who used an integrative EMDR approach, borrowing from many other therapies in tandem with EMDR. The insights I gained about myself, my relationships, and my history helped me to integrate what happened to me, and to learn from it, rather than be consumed by it. I gained wisdom and resilience through the many sessions of EMDR that we did together.
My own experience with EMDR is part of why I believe in offering it to clients. I have experienced firsthand how this kind of work can open us up to new possibilities, help us develop new relationships with old parts of ourselves, and transform the burden of grief.
I also believe in the research supporting EMDR as an evidence-based trauma therapy. The organization that certifies and trains therapists in EMDR, called EMDR International Association (or EMDRIA), has an extensive journal of published research spanning the last several decades with a bounty of research to support this therapy’s efficacy. Even so, no research is definitive, and mountains of research does not mean that EMDR is an effective therapy for every person or every situation.
What Is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a trauma therapy developed in 1987 by Francine Shapiro that uses our body’s adaptive learning processes to help us update old trauma stories and integrate them into our current lives.
The theoretical framework I use for understanding EMDR is called Adaptive Information Processing (AIP). A simple way of thinking about AIP is that our minds and nervous systems are always building networks of information from our experiences. When something happens to us, we learn from it. We make meaning of what happened, how we felt, what we believed about ourselves, what our bodies experienced, and what we should do or did do next.
Most of the time, those experiences become integrated with everything else we have learned. But overwhelming experiences can sometimes become connected to intensely emotional memories, sensations, beliefs, and expectations.
Familiar later experiences can activate those networks, causing something from the past to influence how we perceive and respond to the present. This is one reason a person can know intellectually that they are safe or okay now, while still feeling afraid, ashamed, powerless, or on high alert. These feelings often form what we call “negative core beliefs”, and are the basis of what we target with EMDR therapy.
I tend to avoid the traditional EMDR language of “positive” and “negative” core beliefs. Those terms can imply that one part of us is healthy and another part is broken. Instead, I think of these responses as adaptive qualities that have become overprotective. Your nervous system learned something for a reason. The goal is not to shame or eliminate that learning; it is to help your system recognize when those old strategies are no longer necessary.
How Does EMDR Actually Work?
The honest answer is: we don't completely know.
There is substantial research on EMDR and its mechanisms, but there is still debate about exactly why the different components of EMDR produce the effects they do. I think it is important to be transparent about that rather than presenting one particular explanation as settled fact.
One important component of how EMDR does what it does is “Dual Attention Stimulation”, or DAS. This is the part of EMDR most people recognize: eye movements, tapping, alternating sounds, or another form of bilateral stimulation. Although bilateral stimulation is commonly used in EMDR, bilateral stimulation itself is not necessarily what makes a stimulus a dual attention stimulus. Other forms of DAS – such as drawing, playing an instrument, passing a ball back and forth, et cetera – can also be used in EMDR, depending on the person and the clinical context.
During processing, you are simultaneously attending to something emotionally charged from the past and the DAS happening in the present. One influential explanation is that a DAS places demands on working memory, which may reduce the vividness and emotional intensity of a memory while you are processing it, and helps to orient the old memories to the present.
It also creates some psychological distance, allowing you to observe what is happening rather than becoming completely immersed in the memory. In other words, we are helping you have one foot in the past and one foot in the present.
EMDR is not about pretending that something didn’t happen, or getting rid of a bad memory. It is about helping your system recognize that it happened then, and you are here now.
Common Misunderstandings About EMDR
“You Have to Move Your Eyes Back and Forth to Do EMDR.”
Not really. Eye movements are one form of dual attention stimulation, but they are not the entire therapy. Tapping, sounds, or other forms of stimulation can also be used; really, anything that is distracting enough to create some distance from the intensity of the emotions, but not so distracting that we cannot let our mind wander. We can use drawing, walking, passing a ball back and forth, dancing, et cetera, as a DAS!
“EMDR Will Cure My Trauma.”
I don't promise that. I believe EMDR can be powerful and life-changing, but I don't think it is a magic cure or a solution for every problem, nor do I think trauma is necessarily “cured”. Our experiences are complicated, and healing is rarely linear.
“If I Start EMDR, We’ll Immediately Start Digging Through All My Worst Memories.”
Also no. I generally do not begin EMDR processing until we have developed enough trust and care between us and you feel sufficiently resourced to ground and soothe yourself outside of sessions. Preparation matters, maybe even more than all that hand waving!
What Does EMDR Therapy Look Like?
Once a client and I decide that EMDR might be a good fit, we think about processing a particular topic in three stages.
Stage 1: Target Sequence Planning
This is the stage that often takes the longest. We identify a theme, topic, or memory that you want to work on. We decide what we are going to target, identify what core beliefs you hold about yourself around that topic, and take a history of when those beliefs showed up in your life.
Oftentimes, Stage 1 integrates many other types of therapies as we explore a particular topic. Sometimes we take a break and focus on building skills rather than deep trauma work.
Stage 2: Desensitization and Reprocessing
This is the stage most people associate with EMDR! We use the dual attention stimulation in short “sets” that often last 10-30 seconds while you bring the target memory, belief, emotion, or body sensation to mind alongside your beliefs about yourself.
I will periodically ask what you notice, or to provide feedback on the beliefs we are working with. We will follow what emerges rather than trying to force a particular outcome. Many people want to share everything they are getting during each “set”, but I try to encourage folks to stay in their own body and mind, rather than trying to share everything they are thinking about. I ask patients to share only the ‘headline’, and to just keep themselves on the ride that their brain is taking them on.
Processing often takes most or all of a therapy session, and it can be beneficial to extend the therapeutic hour to 90 minutes to allow for adequate processing time.
Stage 3: Reevaluation and Reflection
This stage is about checking in and reflecting with each other. We discuss what came up during processing and what you are noticing afterward. Usually, I encourage clients to save their comments for the next time that we meet, rather than right after the reprocessing session in order to encourage more internal processing. I may offer a reflection exercise between sessions for folks who appreciate a more guided approach.
After we go through a reprocessing session, many patients worry that it “didn’t work” if they don’t feel their experience is sufficiently resolved. It is completely normal for a particular topic to require more than one processing session; how could we fully reprocess and integrate such charged experiences in the span of a 50-90 minute therapy session?
And because most people have more than one painful experience, belief, or theme they want to work through, we may move through these stages many times.
EMDR and Individual Therapy in Seattle
EMDR is one approach I may use within individual therapy in Seattle, rather than a one-size-fits-all treatment that is appropriate for everyone.
Sometimes EMDR is the right tool; sometimes another approach is a better fit; and often, meaningful therapy involves a combination of approaches. The goal is to understand what you have experienced, how it continues to affect you, and what kind of support may be most useful for you now.
Bringing It All Together
EMDR is not about erasing difficult memories or forcing ourselves to move past painful experiences. For me, it is a way of helping people understand and integrate what they have lived through, so that the past can become part of their story without continuing to consume their present.
The process is collaborative, gradual, and different for every person. Sometimes EMDR is the right tool; sometimes another approach is a better fit; and often, meaningful therapy involves a combination of approaches.
The goal is not to make every difficult experience disappear, but to help people develop a more flexible relationship with what has happened to them: to feel safer in the present, understand themselves with greater compassion, and have more freedom to choose how they want to move forward.
EMDR can be powerful, but it is not magic. It is one tool among many, and the most important part of the work is finding the approach that feels useful, appropriate, and meaningful for you.
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About the Author
Brantly Iracleanos, MSW, LICSWA
Brantly works with individuals, couples, and relationships of all kinds, and their approach is informed by community care and the connections between our thoughts, feelings, bodies, relationships, sense of place, and experiences over the lifespan. As a therapist in Seattle, they integrate practices such as EMDR therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS) to help people make meaning of trauma and lived experience and transform the burdens they carry.
Brantly believes that the body, mind, and spirit know how to heal themselves, and that therapy can be part of that healing path. Their work is grounded in curiosity, compassion, and a commitment to meeting people where they are as they navigate pain, grief, joy, and possibility. Outside of therapy, Brantly finds purpose through D&D, sport climbing, yoga, farming, and food justice.
Interested in working with Brantly? If you’d like to request an appointment with Brantly, please select their name on your inquiry form so the team knows you’d like to work with them.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for individualized mental health care.