When one suffers a traumatic experience our brain takes action to protect us. In my case, I was a 5 year old who was sexually abused by an uncle for 9 years.

The trauma became too much for me and my brain split (for lack of a better term). The 'split' is actually the emotional side turning off because the event is too overwhelming. (One side of your brain controls emotions and the other thoughts). So your brain processes the event on an intellectual level but not emotionally. In essence you have an incomplete memory and because its incomplete you suffer flashbacks, etc.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) works by forcing the 2 sides of your brain to work together. Before beginning the session, you talk with your therapist about the negative feelings you have about the trauma- shame, hurt, lack of self-worth, etc. You select one of them as your focus for the session. And you also select a positive belief you would like to replace it with.

In the session your eyes follow a light from side to side; this forces both sides of your brain to work together. (you could also use a sound that goes side to side or pods you hold in your hand that vibrate back and forth) As this is happening the therapist prompts you to recall certain memories. As that memory comes up more pieces of that memory come up. It is at this time that you experience the emotional side of the trauma you are working through. Its important to note that you have total control during the entire session; you can stop it at any time.

It took me quite a long time to get over the shame I felt. I always believed I did something wrong, I should have fought harder, I wasn't strong enough, etc.

It really is amazing as you start to see the changes in yourself and your beliefs about the trauma.

Think of it as the dreaming process. It is believed that our brain uses this time to sort through and organize our day and then store all of it in our memory. Once EMDR does its thing the traumas become complete memories we can recall with the appropriate emotion and intellect. EMDR becomes our "dream" process by helping our brains to process the entire memory. This enables us to recall it with a better understanding of what happened.

I understand that we can still have some flashbacks but they are significantly diminished in both frequency and intensity.

I hope this gives you some understanding of EMDR. And for those that have or are going through this process I hope that I have accurately represented the therapy. Please feel free to correct me.