EMDR Therapy Flash Technique is used during EMDR therapy, also known as eye movement desensitization reprocessing therapy, is a mental health treatment technique. EMDR therapy is used to help people heal from PTSD (post traumatic stress) or other traumatic experiences. The goal of EMDR therapy is to heal from trauma or some other distressing life event and move forward with your life. EMDR therapy is known for getting people unstuck so they can live a productive life.
Everyone with a mental health condition can benefit from EMDR therapy. Eye movement desensitization reprocessing therapy can be used with all age groups. EMDR therapy is effective and can help an individual heal from trauma faster than many other therapeutic methods including CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and psychotherapy (talk therapy). Since EMDR therapy does not require you, the client talking in detail about the traumatic event is viewed as a gentle alternative to standard therapy sessions.
How EMDR Therapy Works
It is not necessary to discuss an upsetting issue in detail during EMDR therapy. Instead, EMDR concentrates on altering the feelings, ideas, or actions that follow a traumatic or upsetting event. This enables the natural healing process in your brain to continue. Although the terms “mind” and “brain” are frequently used interchangeably, they have different meanings.
One of your body’s organs is your brain. The ideas, recollections, convictions, and life events that shape who you are all stored in your mind. The structure of your brain determines how your mind functions. This is particularly true for the parts where your senses and memories are involved. This networking facilitates faster and simpler collaboration between those domains. For this reason, your senses of sight, hearing, and smell can bring back strong memories.
You can access memories of a traumatic incident in very particular ways when you undertake EMDR therapy. You can reprocess what you remember from the bad incident by accessing those memories in conjunction with guided instructions and eye movements. Reprocessing aids in “repairing” the psychological harm caused by the recollection of the trauma. You will not feel like you’re reliving what occurred to you since EMDR therapy assists with healing from the traumatic event. EMDR therapy assists you with dealing with the associated emotions much easier.
EMDR Therapy Works for Intense Trauma
When some clients refuse to focus on especially upsetting memories, disassociate when they do, or use avoidance mechanisms, it can be challenging to perform EMDR with them. The flash technique is a fast, painless process that can be utilized as an alternative to various forms of titration during the preparation phase to lessen the initial distress associated with trauma memories so that clients won’t have to defend or disassociate.
How Will My Therapist Address Intense Trauma?
EMDR therapy can be used to process overwhelming trauma. Some people who have experienced intense trauma tend to feel overwhelmed or shut down during therapy because the horrific information they have experienced is too upsetting for them to handle. The Flash technique in EMDR therapy enables patients to handle severe trauma at a comparatively modest level of disturbance. The Flash Technique (FT) is a recently developed evidenced-based therapeutic intervention for reducing the disturbance associated with traumatic or other distressing memories.
What is EMDR Therapy Flash Technique
EMDR Therapy Flash Technique is a minimally disturbing option that does not require the client to consciously engage with the traumatic memory. This allows the client to process traumatic memories without feeling danger or an intense emotion. When the Flash technique is added to the EMDR preparation phase it makes it possible to process memories that would otherwise be intolerable or overwhelming to the client. The Flash technique has been shown to be helpful in lowering the degree of disruption linked to extremely painful memories. Like EMDR therapy, the Flash technique works to address unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain by using alternating tapping or eye movements.
EMDR Therapy Flash Technique is recommended for people who are extremely apprehensive of accessing their traumatic memories or dissociate when they attempt to access the memories, who become emotionally overwhelmed, or who are resistant to visiting the memory. The Flash technique is used during the preparation phase of EMDR as a rapid way of reducing the intensity of very disturbing memories so that they can be easily processed in the remaining phases of standard EMDR treatment.
The Goal of the Flash Technique With EMDR Therapy
The goal of the intervention is to painlessly reduce the disturbance associated with a distressing target memory to a level that the client is no longer resistant to fully access it and process it with standard EMDR. Your EMDR therapist will advise that this can be a way that you can reduce memory related distress without having to think about it.
The Flash technique shifts you away from this distressing experience. Doing so helps us process these memories without overwhelming ourselves or others. Creating an environment that is comfortable and productive for everyone involved. We do this by creating positive anchors, or what others call a safe space. It is useful in a wide variety of concerns including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, mild and severe dissociation, depression and more.
EMDR Therapy Flash Technique can reduce the distress of a memory or disturbing experience “enough” so that further processing of the trauma with EMDR therapy is easier to tolerate. The Flash Technique utilizes eye movements or alternating tapping and is designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain. The EMDR Therapy Flash technique can be a helpful addition to EMDR work or it can be a stand-alone treatment.
What conditions and problems does EMDR Therapy Flash Technique treat?
The most widespread use of EMDR therapy Flash Technique is for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mental healthcare providers also use it in the treatment of the following conditions:
- Anxiety disorders: Generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias and social anxiety/phobia.
- Depression disorders: Major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder and illness-related depression.
- Dissociative disorders: Dissociative identity disorder or amnesia and depersonalization or derealization disorder.
- Eating disorders: Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.
- Gender dysphoria (feeling as though your gender is different from the one assigned to you at birth).
- Obsessive-compulsive disorders: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), body dysmorphic disorder and hoarding disorder.
- Personality disorders: Borderline personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder.
- Trauma disorders: Acute stress disorder, PTSD and adjustment disorder.
EMDR therapy Flash technique is a relatively new and effective method of helping people with traumatic memories. It’s also an option for people of all ages, including children. Though this treatment is best known for its use in treating PTSD, ongoing research shows it can treat many other conditions. Though it can’t treat all mental health conditions, this therapy method can make a big difference for people struggling with painful events in their past. Contact Sobair Mental Health and Wellness for EMDR therapy, EMDR Intensives, and EMDR therapy plus Flash technique.