EMDR and TFT: How These Proven Techniques Can Turn Things Around for Trauma Recovery
Counseling and psychotherapy are often called ‘talking therapies’. Narratives and dialogue process trauma and memories. Language and relationship deliver treatment. The ‘talking therapies,’ practiced for over a hundred years, are very effective.
However, counseling and psychotherapy, used with key, innovative, non-verbal techniques can help turn things around quickly and even more significantly.
EMDR and TFT are two such trauma recovery techniques.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing – EMDR
This psychotherapy approach is ‘integrative.’ Therefore, it includes elements of numerous schools of psychological thought and diverse treatment methods.
EMDR is special because it incorporates a non-verbal treatment component too.
Francine Shapiro originally developed EMDR therapy to improve treatment of PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. She made a clear connection between trauma, brain changes, and corresponding eye movements.
The Desensitization and Reprocessing of the Traumatic Experience are activated while EMDR clients think about their traumatic memories. There is no need to verbalize or tell the therapist the story. Just thinking about is enough. At the same time, clients track the movement of the therapists’ finger with their eyes. The finger moves from left to right, thus the eyes move from left to right, and back again as well.
According to research, the eye movement activates healing processes in the brain.
Therapists also use sophisticated equipment to effect healing through EMDR. Sometimes the clients hold small paddles in each hand. These paddles emit very mild pulses, alternating between the left and right hand. Other times, headphones guide the client through a left and right ear sequence of bilateral tones. Yet another therapeutic EMDR tool is a sort of horizontal light bar with flashing lights moved from left to right and back again.
The exact mechanisms of EMDR are still subject to a significant amount of scientific research. However, EMDR is clearly both proven and effective.
A number of studies suggest that EMDR works with the interaction of the left and right brain hemisphere.“We believe that EMDR induces a fundamental change in brain circuitry similar to what happens in REM sleep,” notes Robert Stickgold, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School in an interview with The Fix, a leading addiction and recovery website.
Thought Field Therapy – TFT
TFT, developed by Roger Callahan Ph.D., belongs to the field of Energy Psychology, a Western concept based on Chinese Medicine and the system of energy meridians in the human body.
Thought Field Therapy balances the energies in the body, facilitating the natural healing processes from trauma and negative emotions.
As in EMDR, the client thinks about their traumatic memories. At the same time, he or she taps his or her fingers on a series of acupressure points on the body. The Chinese meridian system asserts that all pressure points connected to different sets of emotions. The tapping activates the flow of blocked energies and helps release the trauma.
TFT also uses a system of eye movements connected to memories and thought processes.
Some of the energy release processes are deeply rooted in the client’s unconscious mind. To treat participants thoroughly, additional tapping activations from the therapist are helpful. This way, the client’s unconscious mind doesn’t sabotage their conscious process. TFT therapy is able to target more primitive parts of the brain than talking therapies alone.
TFT, too, is often used in conjunction with other therapeutic approaches. This benefits the client with an ‘all- around’ approach to their recovery.
EMDR and TFT treat trauma sufferers all over the world. These proven techniques aid, and often accelerate, trauma recovery markedly. The added benefit of healing without the need for exclusive focus on the re-telling of painful stories is vital to many clients. Ask your counselor if you want to give it a try!
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