EMDR is a psychotherapeutic technique that taps into your brain’s natural ability to heal from past emotional wounds.
Specifically, EMDR helps your brain process traumatic memories so as to take away their disturbing element. As a result, EMDR can be a powerful tool for removing internal blocks that jeopardize healthy functioning.
Who Benefits:
First developed some thirty years ago as a therapy for PTSD, EMDR quickly became the gold standard for treating that disorder. In recent years, EMDR’s use has broadened and it has proved to be effective for performance enhancement as well.
EMDR has become very popular among performing artists and athletes because it can reduce performance anxiety, fear of failure, self-sabotage through procrastination and other setbacks that get in the way of optimal performance.
Doctors, business executives and other professionals can also benefit. Indeed, EMDR has the potential to help anyone whose performance is compromised by the overbearing influence of the past.
How Does EMDR work?
EMDR accesses your brain’s system of processing information through bilateral brain stimulation. EMDR practitioners like myself use gentle eye movements, tactile tapping and/or sound to help your brain access particularly distressing incidents and reprocess them.
EMDR allows you to review memories without retriggering the past in ways that upset you, giving you a new, clear perspective on the past. Traumatic memories recede to the background— where they belong.
In some ways, EMDR is akin to the REM (rapid eye movement) state that occurs during sleep. Information is reprocessed in rapid free association. Toxic mental states that are holding you back are released. You then experience calmer states of mind, greater confidence and better self-efficacy.
Dr. William Zangwill, a New York psychologist who trains clinicians in EMDR, explains EMDR this way: Think of traumas sticking together in the brain to form a neural network, much like ice cubes clumping together in the freezer. If you melt down one ice cube, the whole clump melts. Similarly, you can start EMDR with the least threatening trauma and the whole neural network begins to dissipate.
During this cortical reprocessing, you establish new, more positive neural network pathways in the brain. This allows you to draw upon your inner strengths in compelling ways.
An Example of EMDR for Performance Enhancement
To understand EMDR’s usefulness in performance enhancement, consider the case of one of my past clients, Eric, age 48. Eric was a conservatory-trained pianist who suffered from stage fright his entire career. Although successful, he was still preoccupied with fears about memory slips and other mishaps that could compromise his performance. After years of talk therapy he decided to try something new.
Within a dozen 90-minute sessions of EMDR, he developed an entirely new relationship with performing. He no longer played music desperately, in attempt to escape the judgments and restrictiveness of the past. He was able to view each concert as a way of improving upon the last and of sharing the beauty of the music with the audience.
His coach, stunned by the difference in his performance quality, commented that he “could not believe what he heard.”
How did this shift happen so quickly? Through EMDR, the client got in touch with negative memories of an authoritarian father. These memories caused the client to shut down and see the audience as a critical parent always judging him harshly. EMDR allowed the client to release those negative voices.
The client expressed it in this way: “It wasn’t an intellectual process. I felt as if a block had been lifted between my thinking about the music and my being able to implement my ideas.”
If You Want To Embark on EMDR:
EMDR has the power to evoke strong memories and emotions. Therefore, it requires skill on the part of the practitioner. EMDR should only be done by a licensed mental health professional who has completed training with one of the established EMDR Institutes. Like other forms of psychotherapy, EMDR treatment also requires a strong, trusting connection with your practitioner.
Of course, EMDR is not intended to provide instantaneous resolution to complex life problems. It takes time and effort to achieve results. However, if you are ready for change, have made a good connection with your therapist, and resonate with the EMDR method, then the results can be remarkable.
Permission for publication of client material has been given to the author who has disguised identifying information.