Have you spent months, or even years, in traditional talk therapy or CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) for a trauma or series of traumas and yet, you still suffer?
Perhaps you can logically tell yourself, “I am safe now” or “It wasn’t my fault,” but in the heat of the moment, your body screams something different. You “know” the truth in your head, but you don’t “feel” it in your heart.
In EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), we understand why this happens. It’s not because you aren’t trying hard enough or because you aren’t “doing therapy right.” It’s because, according to the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, your negative beliefs are actually a physical, intrinsic part of an unprocessed memory (Shapiro, 2017).
The “Memory Package”
When you experience something overwhelming, your brain doesn’t always store it as a neat, completed story. Instead, the memory gets “stuck” in its raw, original form.
Think of a traumatic memory as a frozen package. Inside that package are four things that were present the moment the event happened:
- The Image: What you saw.
- The Emotion: The terror, shame, or grief.
- The Physical Sensation: The knot in your stomach or the tightness in your throat.
- The Negative Belief: The “meaning” your brain assigned to the event to survive (e.g., “I am powerless,” or “I am unlovable”).
Because that negative belief (the cognition) is physically woven into the neural network of the memory, you cannot simply “talk” yourself out of it (Solomon & Shapiro, 2008). As long as the memory remains unprocessed, the belief remains “live.”
Why Your “Logic” Goes Offline
You might wonder why your rational brain can’t just override these old thoughts. Research shows that when a memory is triggered, the amygdala (your alarm system) takes over and effectively shuts down the prefrontal cortex (your logical, thinking brain) (Lanius et al., 2010).
This is why CBT can sometimes feel like trying to put out a forest fire with a water pistol. You are using logic to fight a biological survival response. If the memory is still stored in its “pathological” or raw state, your brain will continue to produce that negative belief as a way to protect you—even if it’s no longer true (Hase et al., 2017).
How EMDR Changes the Belief
In EMDR, we don’t just talk about the belief; we go after the entire memory network.
By using bilateral stimulation (like guided eye movements), we help your brain “unlock” that frozen package. As the memory is finally “digested” or processed:
- The high-intensity emotions begin to fade.
- The physical sensations in your body soften.
- The negative belief naturally loses its power.
The most amazing part? You don’t have to force yourself to believe something new. As the memory reaches a healthy resolution, an adaptive belief (like “I am worthy” or “It is over”) emerges spontaneously. You don’t just “think” it is true—you feel it in your bones (Shapiro, 2017).
You Aren’t Broken
If you are tired of fighting your own thoughts, know that those thoughts are just symptoms of a memory that is waiting to be healed. Your brain has an innate drive toward health; sometimes, it just needs the right tools to finish the job.
References
- Hase, M., Schallmayer, S., & Sack, M. (2017). The effects of EMDR on the somatic level: A backward glance. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1023. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01023
- Lanius, R. A., Frewen, P. A., Vermetten, E., & Yehuda, R. (2010). Fear conditioning and early life vulnerabilities: Two distinct pathways of emotional dysregulation and brain dysfunction in PTSD. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(6), 640–647. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09121733
- Shapiro, F. (2017). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
- Solomon, R. M., & Shapiro, F. (2008). EMDR and the Adaptive Information Processing model: Potential mechanisms of change. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 2(4), 315–325. https://doi.org/10.1891/1933-3196.2.4.315
