How to Use EMDR at Home: Online EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing / EMDR is a powerful method that’s been used for decades to release trauma permanently without prescription drugs or side effects of any kind. It works through several natural mechanisms of action, by taking control of eye movements that are normally made unconsciously.
As with breathing and breath, eye movements are typically unconscious. We don’t have to think about eye movements, they just happens. But as with breath and breathing and the use of systems like breathwork or pranayama, it is possible to take control of eye movements consciously to accomplish certain goals for human health. Below we talk about how EMDR works to release trauma permanently.
EMDR and REM Sleep
EMDR mimics the movements the eyes naturally make during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. During REM sleep, the brain and the body work together, via the eyes, to process stress and trauma, moving the data back and forth from right-brain to left-brain. Many people who suffer with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder / PTSD, have difficulty achieving REM sleep states as well as alpha-brainwave states in part because there’s an overload of trauma. Using EMDR to release trauma into the left brain for processing often improves sleep and allows people with trauma overload to begin to achieve relaxed alpha and theta states more easily.
EMDR and the Autonomic Nervous System
The movement of the eyes back and forth causes the eye muscles to pull on the cranial bones in a way that adjusts these bones slightly. The bones of the skull float over the meninges that protect the brain and they can be moved slightly using treatments like craniosacral therapy or EMDR. When the cranial bones are adjusted using EMDR or craniosacral therapy, it takes pressure off the nerves that operate the autonomic nervous system.
The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that operates autonomously. It manages the functioning of the organs and it intersects with the endocrine glands and our energetic template (which is related to the chakras, each of which are associated with an endocrine gland). We store trauma in the autonomic nervous system and when our autonomic nervous system gets overloaded with too much trauma, we develop dis-ease in one or more organs and tissues, we may experience chronic pain from an “unknown” source, or develop some form of mental illness. Click here to learn more about the autonomic nervous system.
Online EMDR works in part to release trauma by adjusting the cranial bones so that these bones no longer put pressure on the cranial nerves that supply the autonomic nervous system. This allows trauma that’s being stored in the body, to connect to higher levels of the brain so that we can experience trauma as “meaningful”, wherein the traumatic experience is integrated into a higher level of thinking in the left-brain. When trauma passes from the autonomic nervous system to the left brain, the traumatic experience is no longer charged with negative, unresolved emotions, and it becomes a source of strength and wisdom instead of acting as the cause of dis-ease.
Click here to do a free trial of EMDR online.
How to Use the AlivenHealthy Remote EMDR Tool
The AlivenHealthy Remote EMDR tool works the same way that EMDR works in clinical settings with a therapist. While focusing on the peak of an inner conflict or traumatic memory, patients watch the ball move across the screen while listening to the EMDR sounds in a headset (because the sounds move from left to right, a headset is essential for best results). It’s important to identify the trauma, negative memory, toxic thought, or uncomfortable emotion that you wish to release before you begin the EMDR session.
Click here to read more about how to embody your trauma to prime it for release.
Why do I need a headset?
Though it isn’t essential that you use a headset with the remote EMDR tool, having a headset makes it possible to simultaneously administer visual EMDR as well as auditory EMDR. While eye movements help to adjust the cranial bones to release pressure on the cranial nerves, auditory EMDR assists the brain with right-brain to left-brain integration. If you have a headset available to you, using it for EMDR can enhance the final results.
Treatment Location: Set and Setting
Be sure to find a quiet space that feels safe and that’s free of distractions. You need to be able to focus internally on yourself to experience the positive effects of EMDR. One of the major benefits of EMDR online is the fact that patients get to work at home in a space that feels safe to them. Make sure that you won’t be interrupted during your sessions by other people in your space or by your phone or computer. Turn off notifications on your phone and dedicate some mental space to the release of trauma while working with EMDR online.
Sacred medicines like psilocybin and Ayahuasca are often used to release trauma permanently and quickly. When working with these medicines, therapists acknowledge the role of set and setting in final outcomes. You should work with EMDR online in a similar manner and light a candle before each session or just take a moment to arrange the space with items that make you feel safe and comfortable. This is referred to as “set and setting” and it is acknowledged as an important element in trauma release in many treatment settings.
Click here to learn more about the use of psilocybin to release trauma.
Use EMDR with Brain Entrainment and Guided Meditation
We often recommend that our clients work with both EMDR and a guided meditation and brain entrainment tool like DreamLight.app. DreamLight.app uses brain entrainment sounds and lights to produce different brainwave states. In people who have experienced a lot of trauma, alpha and theta brain wave states may be hard to access at first. These are brainwave states that are necessary for trauma to pass from the unconscious into the conscious mind. So people who are overloaded with trauma often have a difficult time accessing these states because they’re trying to avoid re-experiencing traumatic memories, toxic thoughts, and negative emotions.
In order to release trauma, it’s vital for patients to be able to pass into and through an alpha and theta brainwave state. EMDR can help the brain produce alpha and theta brain waves more readily, but in between EMDR sessions, the DreamLight.app can help patients gain access to trauma that’s been buried deeply to produce better overall results using EMDR. One of the challenges of doing EMDR for trauma release (as opposed to working with sacred medicines, for example) is the problem of gaining access to traumatic experiences that are driving fight-or-flight or play dead responses. The DreamLight.app can help patients gain access to traumatic material which can then be focused on and released through the use of EMDR online.
Though it isn’t essential to combine EMDR online with brain entrainment and guided meditation, we highly recommend this combination, especially for situations involving complex trauma.
Click here to learn more about the DreamLight.app, a guided meditation and brain-entrainment tool.
EMDR Online: Private Sessions with a Therapist
Sometimes, online EMDR should be done with a therapist in a private session. Some patients prefer to work with a therapist via Zoom to make it easier to commit to treatment and stick to it, and also to make it easier to square up with aspects of themselves that may be toxic or frightening.
Click here to learn more about online EMDR with a therapist.
Resources:
Frye, D. (2024). How Does EMDR Therapy Work? What Makes It So Effective? Retrieved August 24, 2024 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/relationship-and-trauma-insights/202007/how-does-emdr-therapy-work-what-makes-it-so-effective
Landin-Romero, R. et al. (2018). How Does Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy Work? A Systematic Review on Suggested Mechanisms of Action. Retrieved August 24, 2024 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6106867/
