Your Brain's Way of Healing: Understanding Adaptive Information Processing and EMDR Therapy

During a traumatic event, data gets stuck on the nervous system rather than being stored correctly in the brain.

Have you ever wondered how your brain handles all the different experiences you have each day, especially the tough ones? Just as your body has a natural way to heal a cut, your brain possesses an inherent system for processing and recovering from distressing events.

In the context of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy, this natural healing system is referred to as Adaptive Information Processing (AIP). The AIP model suggests that your brain is designed to take in new information, make sense of it, and then store it effectively. This allows you to learn from your experiences, integrate them into your understanding of the world, and apply those lessons as you move forward . When this process works well, it contributes to your overall well-being.

However, sometimes when highly stressful or traumatic experiences occur, your brain's natural processing can be overwhelmed. This can lead to the memory of the event, along with the associated thoughts, emotions, and even physical sensations, becoming maladaptively stored or "stuck" in your nervous system. Think of your nervous system like a giant spider's web. When a traumatic even happens, you can become dysregulated, or go outside of your Window of Tolerance. When this happens, the AIP network doesn't work as well, and these memories can get stuck out on the nervous system instead of being processed. These unprocessed memories can continue to cause significant disturbance and distress, even long after the event itself has passed. This can manifest as ongoing stress, anxiety, or other challenging symptoms.

EMDR therapy is a treatment approach that aims to reactivate and facilitate this natural processing capacity of the brain. One of a few key components of EMDR is Bilateral Stimulation (BLS). This might involve specific eye movements, alternating sounds delivered through headphones, or tactile tapping on the hands or knees. This back-and-forth stimulation is believed to help different parts of the brain communicate more effectively, similar to the processes that occur naturally during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

As your brain engages in this reprocessing, those previously "stuck" memories can become unlocked. The intense emotions and negative beliefs associated with the memory can decrease. The distressing experience gradually becomes less disturbing, allowing you to integrate it more adaptively and extract useful learning from it. Essentially, EMDR helps your brain do what it's inherently designed to do: process difficult experiences and move towards healing and resolution.

An important note is that EMDR is not just BLS. There are other phases and important components to EMDR that require a licensed therapist trained or certified in EMDR. For this reason, it is not a good idea to try any form of EMDR on your own. Please seek a licensed therapist who is trained or certified in EMDR to accompany you on your healing journey.

If you're interested in booking a consultation for EMDR therapy, please head over to the booking page and choose a time that works for you!