What is EMDR Therapy and How Can It Help with Mental Health?

Within six weeks of Samuel Paske learning his mother had been diagnosed with an aggressive and rare form of blood cancer, she was gone.

The sudden loss of his mother triggered a natural response in Paske. \"I went into 'helper mode' … I didn't give myself the time to process and then didn't really think about it,\" he says.

Over the following year, his mental health steadily declined. He was struggling with daily tasks and feeling detached from his life. \"I was at a point where I was hardly sleeping … I had this recurring vision of one of my last moments with mum in hospital.\"

With support from his family and workplace, Paske took time off and started seeing a psychologist. The recurring vision of his mother in hospital was playing \"on a loop\" in his head.

So, his psychologist asked him to recall that vision in detail. \"He got me to talk through it in minute detail and put myself in that room again. And of course … I was just a mess. I was very emotional,\" Paske says.

\"He said, 'Just keep on talking, keep on picturing that image in your head. I'm going to hold my finger up in front of you and then I want you to, as you continue talking to me and as you continue to hold that image in your head, follow my finger.'\"

Paske was undergoing an initial session of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. A treatment he says had an immediate impact. \"My psychologist asked me how I was feeling after, and I was clearly not as emotional as I was 2 minutes prior.\"

What is EMDR?

While on a walk through a park in 1987, American psychologist Francine Shapiro noticed her eyes moving rapidly from side to side, watching the pavement, while at the same time, disturbing thoughts in her head were becoming less intrusive.

Shapiro had a keen interest in the interactions between mind and body through her work, and this observation enabled her to go on and develop EMDR.

EMDR aims to reduce the level of distress and emotion associated with a memory. (ABC: 7.30)

The treatment is a form of structured psychological therapy that involves a patient being instructed to focus briefly on a memory that may represent trauma or emotional distress. They simultaneously experience bilateral stimulation, which is usually eye movements but can also include the tapping of fingers.

The aim is to reduce the level of distress and emotion associated with a memory through images, sounds or sensations to help the patient remain grounded in the present while recalling the event.

The eight-phase treatment is designed to be carried out by an EMDR-trained psychologist with a patient over several sessions.

Dr Sarah Dominguez, a clinical psychologist and accredited EMDR trainer based in Sydney, views the treatment as \"life-changing\" for some patients. \"It's not the only intervention I use, but for people that it helps, it's life-changing. For many patients who have had years of therapy and found that other interventions haven't worked for them, it has been great,\" she says.

But the therapy hasn't been without controversy. Shapiro faced allegations that EMDR was a pseudoscience and not effective, despite having demonstrated its effectiveness through published controlled studies in 1989.

Dr Sarah Dominguez says while EMDR has its critics, she believes it can help patients when other treatments have failed. \"In the 80s, psychology was very male-dominated,\" says Dr Dominguez. \"She Shapiro had a really rough time, and even now, there are criticisms of it. But it's super cool that this woman just backed herself.\"

Over the years, criticisms of EMDR have included the fact that Shapiro was training clinicians in 1991 to apply EMDR in PTSD treatment while it was still labelled as \"experimental\".

And today, some sceptics still wonder whether the eye movement involved is required or is just a placebo effect.

While studies have proven EMDR's effectiveness, a 2001 meta-analysis suggested that the eye movement integral to the treatment may be unnecessary.

In 1995, EMDR was no longer deemed experimental and training restrictions were removed.

Shapiro went on to release the guidelines book EMDR Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures in 1995.

Today, EMDR is recognised as an effective treatment for trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and is backed by the World Health Organization.

'It's made a huge difference'

When model and influencer Olivia Molly Rogers was introduced to EMDR by her long-time psychologist last year, she says the first session \"blew my mind\".

\"The amount of memories that flashed up as we were going through that first session, it was such a crazy experience … There were things that I hadn't thought about for 20 years.\"

Rogers has recently been sharing with her online audience her experience with EMDR, posting videos explaining the treatment and updating them on how she is finding it.

While she says EMDR was initially \"confronting and draining\", she believes it has been beneficial. \"From the first session I felt different … After three sessions I noticed a reduction in my general anxiety, but particularly when I think about specific memories,\" she says.

\"It's made a huge difference for me.\"

Dr Dominguez says it's natural for EMDR to initially feel challenging. \"It can be difficult for clients … even to just think about our past can be really distressing,\" she says. \"So a client needs to really understand that it might make things feel more difficult while they're moving through things, in order to let those memories pass.\"

EMDR enters the mainstream

In recent years, EMDR has become more well-known across mainstream culture.

Popstar Miley Cyrus is among a string of celebrities who have spoken publicly of their experiences with the treatment.

\"Loved it, saved my life,\" she told The New York Times recently. The star explained that the treatment included visualising herself on a train and watching her memories pass by through the window.

\"It's so weird, it's like watching a movie in your mind,\" she explains.

She says EMDR helped her with crippling stage fright, something she told The New York Times she no longer experiences.

Prince Harry is another famous figure who claims to have benefited from the treatment after suffering from unresolved anxiety, which stemmed from the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, when he was 12.

In his mental health documentary series, The Me You Can't See, released in 2021, Harry was shown undergoing EMDR therapy.

Initially, EMDR was developed as a treatment for patients with PTSD, but today the treatment is applied more broadly.

Dr Dominguez says it's a common misconception that patients require a significant trauma or PTSD diagnosis to try EMDR. \"The diagnostic guidelines that we use today, the DSM 5 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, say that to have a diagnosis of PTSD you have to have had something horrific happen,\" she says. \"But that's not what life is like … You can imagine if you have a child that cries and no-one ever comes to soothe them, that's going to have a lifelong impact for someone.

\"So it the trauma is far more about how that person perceives what's happening to them.\"

Treatment can be a 'catalyst' for change

Dr Dominguez likens EMDR's impact on clients as a way of making it easier for them to move forward.

And the application of EMDR is widening.

Today, it is often introduced to patients experiencing substance abuse and has been used in treatment for chronic pain.

It's also been used to help treat \"specific phobias, depression and eating disorders,\" says Dr Dominguez.

When Samuel Paske reflects on the aftermath of his mother's death, he says he was \"like a ghost\". \"EMDR, in my case, was the catalyst to snapping me out of it.\"