In the association’s newsletter, I was especially impressed by a story about a 20-month old Chinese boy who for a month continued to awaken crying several times a night after an automobile accident where he was with his family.  There were no injuries to the passengers (the boy’s aunt and uncle, who were his caretakers) but the doors jammed as a result and the family panicked when they could not get out.   A good natured boy before the incident,  the child had become irritable; he cried easily and was frequently angry.  He also spoke only two words of English:  “Good Boy”, and spoke single words in Chinese.   The family brought the toddler in to a therapist who employs EMDR (Joan Lovett, M.D.)

 Here, in her words, is what happened:  “I asked the uncle and aunt to use toy cars to demonstrate how the accident occurred and I wrote down the sequence of events.  I decided to use alternative movements on the toddler  (not eye movements) to desensitize the accident, and use ‘good boy’ as the positive idea to install.  I explained EMDR to the  aunt and uncle by telling them that if their nephew could see, hear, and feel the retelling of the accident while being tapped on alternating sides of his body, then he would feel better.  I taught the toddler to slap my hands alternately as I repeated ‘good boy’ (‘good boy’ is a fine ‘safe place’ for a toddler -- he smiled throughout).  Next, he sat on his aunt’s lap while his uncle dramatically told the details of the accident in Chinese.”   The plan was to take the boy through the accident again.   At each juncture Dr. Lovett provided the English phrase (“car ride”, “big boom”, “scared”, “crying”, “everything is okay”, “we’re all fine”, “go home”, “good boy!”)  which the aunt and uncle recounted in Chinese.   The session lasted 45 minutes.  Dr. Lovett writes:  “After this single session, the toddler reestablished his normal sleep pattern and resumed his usual disposition. His pediatrician reports that he is well six months after treatment.”

EMDR is the very new psychotherapeutic treatment  method which I mentioned in my first newsletter.  The year since then  has brought a good deal of research to further determine its usefulness.  “Significant improvements” topped the list of conclusions in study after study....”a powerful treatment for panic disorder”....”a major new resource” .....”the most efficient approach to neutralizing trauma and changing beliefs” are other phrases I have extrapolated from studies available.    My own experience in using EMDR with clients is comparable.  I use the method with people who are seeking to be free of auto accident trauma, sexual abuse trauma, chronic pain  and  nightmares,  to name a few; and it is successful for those who wish to change bad habits, like smoking.  FRONTLINE on PBS devoted a story to EMDR a year ago and recently 20/20 did a segment on it.  Both shows were careful in their coverage, if not thorough.  What is not always emphasized, however,  is that while EMDR is a rapid and positive treatment whose effects have been proven to be maintained over time, it is essential that it be used with the utmost clinical skill and with the proper therapeutic relationship.  For the person already in therapy who keeps experiencing a “stuck” place, referral to an EMDR therapist for brief intervention would be appropriate.

First-hand Account of EMDR
Virginia phoned me for an EMDR session after recalling an agonizing memory of childhood rape at age five.  The memory had lain just below the surface of her consciousness for years.  Many times she flashed on one or another detail, but this time in a coffee shop with a trusted friend, she recalled the entire event.  She found herself wanting to curl up next to someone she knew and suck her thumb.  She called me instead.

A few days later when we began the session,  she recalled her anguish and rage.  Her memory began to fill in more details of the scene and she began shuddering with revulsion as the pictures tumbled over each other.

The EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) takes a client through the original trauma quickly and generally fills in details that were erased due to the horror of that trauma.  The accompanying feelings return  along with body sensations.  During our session Virginia experienced physical pain ripping through her body.  Her arms lay in rigid right-angles to her sides.  Her legs, also rigid, were bent at the knee and shoulder width apart.  Her sobs and shaking were heartbreaking.  I moved close to her and put my arms around her.   At the same time that was occurring, Virginia recognized she was making decisions in that moment of the rape:  that she could not trust; that she would never let anyone get close; that she would have to do for herself in life because she was absolutely and totally alone.  All those decisions seemed true at the time of her experience.  No one had been nearby to save her from the perpetrator.  Then,  when she tried to tell her mother, she was not believed.  In my office, she stayed with the process of EMDR to a point where she felt rid of those messages.  While they may have served their purpose when she was five, they didn't work in her adult life.  Releasing them gave her the chance to release the horror of the memory.

Later, after her session, Virginia discovered something unusual.  A place in her body, her right hip, spontaneously released itself for what seemed the first time in her life.  No matter how many exercise classes she attended, or how often she received deep massages, this hip had always been tight.  Now a couple days after her EMDR session,  it was clear that her body  also heard the message to heal old trauma.  Virginia says she no longer hears the chaos in her head and has given up being angry with herself.  Further, her hip no longer needs to protect her by resisting outward force -- it swings open, freely.  As a result, she feels free, too.

Virginia is not her real name, of course.  Her story is true, however.  I thank her for deciding to share it with my readers.

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