Monday
mornings are a morning of EMDR (Eye Movement, Desensitisation and
Reprocessing), my favourite. As an EMDR therapist my job is to work with people
who are struggling with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) – as a result of
any kind of trauma: being in a war zone; rape; accidents; assaults; torture;
really any kind of trauma that can happen to you as an adult. 1 in 3 people
after a traumatic event can develop PTSD, it’s a horrible thing to have to live
with – flashbacks to the events, nightmares about the trauma, feeling
constantly anxious and like you’re under attack. Like a walking, talking
burglar alarm, always on alert for danger. And sometimes not being able to face
certain things related to the trauma e.g. can’t go to the place where it happened,
and then this escalates and can stop you getting out of the house, can’t stay
in your house… You get my drift.
The
clients I am seeing this morning don’t really fit the norm for our bread and
butter EMDR work. The first lady I’ve been seeing for a couple of months and
she’s doing really well, we’re almost done. As a result of a number of traumas
through childhood and adulthood, she has a phobia of choking and hasn’t eaten
solid food for six months, living off Complans, you know liquid food drinks. We’ve
been working through a long list of ‘small’ traumas (these don’t feel small to
her of course) and now cheesy chips and bacon are featuring prominently in her
recovery.
Because
life is never straight forward, this client also has checking behaviours (Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder) and if I thought about it hard, would also fit the
diagnostic criteria for GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) and as we treat the
traumas / phobia these other issues are also getting better. Working with this
case has been an absolute joy for me, the client is so lovely, we have a good
laugh although we are dealing with some difficult stuff and I get the pleasure
of watching someone recover, enjoy eating again (what’s not to like about that)
and also make other positive changes in her life.
So
to EMDR. Eye Movement, Desensitisation and Reprocessing, it’s a bad title I
know and it’s hard to spell. Let me try and explain what it is us EMDR
therapists do. Most of the time your body copes with new information and
experiences without you being aware of it. It is believed that this happens
whilst we are asleep, particularly during rapid eye movement sleep. When
something out of the ordinary occurs you can become traumatised by the event or
by being repeatedly subjected to distress.
These
experiences then become frozen in the brain and are stored in the limbic
system, which is the primitive bit of our brain that deals with senses,
emotions and it’s all raw. It’s the caveman / cavewoman bit of our brain –
fight, flight, freeze. And when information gets stuck here – it gets
re-triggered all the time usually with the symptoms of PTSD. I think of this
bit of our brain as our downstairs brain (above the back of your neck). Your
‘upstairs brain’ is where we process information and experiences so they become
a memory or part of our past, also known as the pre frontal lobe, (front / top
of your head) which deals with reasoning, problem solving, emotional
intelligence, all that kind of thing.
EMDRs
job is to help move the information from a trauma from downstairs to upstairs
in your brain, which given we normally do this whilst asleep, is a natural
healing process. There’s some controversy at times in the world of psychology /
research about how EMDR actually does work. I really don’t care, it just does
and I get to see it happen.
We
start off with a thorough assessment, then prepare for treatment. Then we ask
specific questions about a particular disturbing memory and use either eye
movements or theratappers (which buzz alternately in either hand) to replicate
what happens whilst we are asleep. With repeated sets of this, the memory tends
to change so it loses the distress associated with it and becomes a neutral
past memory. Sometimes this can happen in one session, other times it takes longer
but what is great is seeing people not only get rid of those negative symptoms
of PTSD but also seeing positive benefits for clients in other areas of their
lives as well. It’s a real privilege.
Enough
theory, my next client is struggling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
and I am seeing her as part of a research trial. She is doing well, although
she has had OCD for years and years and years, not been able to work, and has
been stuck in her flat, not seeing many people. She struggles to see sometimes
how well she is doing and today was one of them days. I was (hopefully) top
cheerleader today and she managed to achieve something in the session today,
that in our first session she told me she could never even contemplate doing.
Go Girl!
Afternoon
is being on duty for the service. Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs)
are on the phones taking self-referrals as they come in. My job is to be on
call to give advice and support them in making decisions about treatment
options etc., deal with any other new referrals coming into the service from
other professionals, crisis calls, whatever. I think there’s a bit of snobbery
sometimes from other professionals about PWPs, but I’ll tell you they do a
really hard job really well and I’m always impressed by how good they all are
on the phones.
Zoe Marsden – Senior
Mental Health Practitioner and EMDR Therapist, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust