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Erasing negative emotional memories
EMDR is a quick and painless method of psychological assistance, thanks to which you can easily and reliably get rid of fears, anxiety, the consequences of trauma and negative attitudes towards life. The efficacy of EMDR has been scientifically proven through clinical research and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) studies.
The EMDR method is based on the idea of bilateral stimulation:
The movements of the eyeballs at a certain pace and according to a certain pattern stimulate the alternating work of different hemispheres of the brain.
Rapid eye movements make one or the other hemisphere "turn on".
This alternate work has a positive effect on the emotional state, eliminating and reducing the negative impact of traumatic events, fears and experiences.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. In Russian, the name of the EMDR - method is translated as "desensitization with the help of eye movements and reprocessing", or in short - "DPDG".
What is DPDG?
Like many other remarkable scientific discoveries, EMDR was discovered by accident. Clinical psychologist Francine Shapiro (USA) was very worried about the consequences of chemotherapy: not only her body suffered, but also her soul. The American was very nervous, worried and, of course, afraid. However, Frances noticed that her nervousness was significantly reduced, and her fear receded if she moved her eyeballs in a certain order. The psychologist became interested in this phenomenon and began to study it carefully.
In the course of scientific research, scientists explained the phenomenon of the positive psychological impact of special eye movements using the model of adaptive information processing.
What is this model?
Suppose you inadvertently touch a hot frying pan. It is painful and unpleasant. The memory of this event should be good for you: you will become more accurate, more prudent, more careful. Normally, this is adaptive, correct, information processing. Stress, malaise and other factors reduce our adaptability, and then information is not absorbed adaptively. For example, we begin to panic fear of all the pans, instead of adjusting our behavior based on experience.
Memory is a collection of neural connections. It is believed that the memory of a traumatic event can be "encapsulated": neurons form a capsule, and outside this capsule they do not interact. If the memory is encapsulated, the slightest reminder of the traumatic event is sufficient to elicit a powerful, often destructive emotional response. This reminder is called a “trigger,” a trigger that takes us back to the original experience of pain, fear, and disgust.
Let's give one more example. It was raining, it was slippery, the man was in a hurry, as a result he slipped and fell, broke his leg. The fracture has long and successfully grown together, but as soon as it rains, a wave of experiences rolls over a person: fear, severe pain, despair and a feeling of helplessness. Perhaps due to inadaptive processing of information, a neural capsule of the memory of the fracture was formed, and the rain became a "trigger" that triggers a strong emotional reaction.
Specially organized eye movements provide safe bilateral stimulation of the brain hemispheres, thereby destroying the neural memory capsule, which contains information about a tragic event or difficult experience. For simplicity, a neuronal memory capsule can be compared to a muscle spasm. EMDR helps to destroy this neural capsule, just as a good professional massage helps to relax a muscle that is tightly constricted by a spasm. EMDR is a kind of wellness "massage for the soul" that removes pain and discomfort.
A simple but rather effective technique by Francine Shapiro - the DPDG (desensitization through eye movement) method, initially worked well for psychotherapy of post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes, the DPDG technique is used independently, as a method of erasing emotional memories that bring mental suffering to a person.
As can be seen from the figure, the method of DPDG, desensitization and processing of psychotrauma by eye movement, resembles the principles of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), where each eye movement (direction of gaze) is directly related to the human representative systems (vision, hearing, kinesthetics). However, the Shapiro method (DPDG) does not focus on human sensors (sense organs).
How to use the DPDG method on your own to recycle trauma, severe stress from the past
Serious stresses, emotional experiences, psychotraumas experienced in the past, such as, for example, rape, military operations, natural disasters, accidents and disasters, leave a deep imprint on the human psyche.
The DPDG method will help you to erase emotional, traumatic memories on your own, processing them through eye movements into something neutral, or even positive.
DPDG is independently used in cases where you clearly realize that the cause of your current (here and now) experiences, reactions to stress, fears and phobias .., other neurotic conditions is psychotrauma, experienced severe stress from the past.
Applying the DPDG technique on your own - step by step instructions
So, to use the DPDG technique on your own, you need to sit comfortably against a free wall. You can turn on relaxing music, the lighting should not be bright, for better relaxation, you can breathe a little deep in your stomach.
Take a small flashlight or a laser pointer in your fingers, which you will drive along the wall opposite.
Prepare in advance your traumatic memory, which you want to process through eye movement ("hang in" in the trauma, in order to avoid activating strong feelings until you need it, just know what you will be working with).
There will be three steps in DPDG, by performing which you will be able to independently process your traumatic events from the past, thereby improving your psycho-emotional state in the present.
Step 1: Relaxing and directing a light pointer (flashlight) to the wall opposite, with a slight movement of one fingers (not the whole hand), slowly move the beam along the wall to the left and right (direct gaze), fix your eyes on the light spot and move them together with the beam - left-right.
Your gaze is focused on the spot of light - this is the foreground. At the same time, try to see in the background, as if looking through the wall, what happened to you in the past. At the same time, processing psycho-traumatic information, imagining something neutral or positive in fantasy.
Continue doing DPDG for 3-5-10 minutes until you feel that that negative past is gradually dissipating, turning into something normal.
Take a sharp, deep breath, and look around the room, alternately focusing on different objects. Rate your emotional state on a 100% scale: 0 - no negative emotion at all - 100% - strong emotion.
You can move on to the next step after rest, or the next day, depending on your energy and emotionality.
Step 2: Do all the same, only the movement of the flashlight and with it the eye - in the form of a recumbent figure eight (infinity sign).
Step 3: The same DPDG technique, but the eye movements are now in a circle (counterclockwise).
Since you will apply the method of desensitization through eye movement on your own, you may not be able to completely recycle the trauma and erase negative emotional memories the first time. Progress, of course, will be, but to completely recycle the stress from the past, it is worth repeating the DPDG technique again.
Also, you can ask a loved one to direct the flashlight beam for you, being behind you, out of sight, thereby freeing you from unnecessary psychoenergetic costs.
Attention! If you have had multiple traumas in the past, you should create a hierarchical list of problems before processing your emotions. And start working with the simplest stressful situations captured in the psyche.
EMDR is a quick and painless method of psychological assistance, thanks to which you can easily and reliably get rid of fears, anxiety, the consequences of trauma and negative attitudes towards life. The efficacy of EMDR has been scientifically proven through clinical research and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) studies.
The EMDR method is based on the idea of bilateral stimulation:
The movements of the eyeballs at a certain pace and according to a certain pattern stimulate the alternating work of different hemispheres of the brain.
Rapid eye movements make one or the other hemisphere "turn on".
This alternate work has a positive effect on the emotional state, eliminating and reducing the negative impact of traumatic events, fears and experiences.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. In Russian, the name of the EMDR - method is translated as "desensitization with the help of eye movements and reprocessing", or in short - "DPDG".
What is DPDG?
Like many other remarkable scientific discoveries, EMDR was discovered by accident. Clinical psychologist Francine Shapiro (USA) was very worried about the consequences of chemotherapy: not only her body suffered, but also her soul. The American was very nervous, worried and, of course, afraid. However, Frances noticed that her nervousness was significantly reduced, and her fear receded if she moved her eyeballs in a certain order. The psychologist became interested in this phenomenon and began to study it carefully.
In the course of scientific research, scientists explained the phenomenon of the positive psychological impact of special eye movements using the model of adaptive information processing.
What is this model?
Suppose you inadvertently touch a hot frying pan. It is painful and unpleasant. The memory of this event should be good for you: you will become more accurate, more prudent, more careful. Normally, this is adaptive, correct, information processing. Stress, malaise and other factors reduce our adaptability, and then information is not absorbed adaptively. For example, we begin to panic fear of all the pans, instead of adjusting our behavior based on experience.
Memory is a collection of neural connections. It is believed that the memory of a traumatic event can be "encapsulated": neurons form a capsule, and outside this capsule they do not interact. If the memory is encapsulated, the slightest reminder of the traumatic event is sufficient to elicit a powerful, often destructive emotional response. This reminder is called a “trigger,” a trigger that takes us back to the original experience of pain, fear, and disgust.
Let's give one more example. It was raining, it was slippery, the man was in a hurry, as a result he slipped and fell, broke his leg. The fracture has long and successfully grown together, but as soon as it rains, a wave of experiences rolls over a person: fear, severe pain, despair and a feeling of helplessness. Perhaps due to inadaptive processing of information, a neural capsule of the memory of the fracture was formed, and the rain became a "trigger" that triggers a strong emotional reaction.
Specially organized eye movements provide safe bilateral stimulation of the brain hemispheres, thereby destroying the neural memory capsule, which contains information about a tragic event or difficult experience. For simplicity, a neuronal memory capsule can be compared to a muscle spasm. EMDR helps to destroy this neural capsule, just as a good professional massage helps to relax a muscle that is tightly constricted by a spasm. EMDR is a kind of wellness "massage for the soul" that removes pain and discomfort.
A simple but rather effective technique by Francine Shapiro - the DPDG (desensitization through eye movement) method, initially worked well for psychotherapy of post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes, the DPDG technique is used independently, as a method of erasing emotional memories that bring mental suffering to a person.
As can be seen from the figure, the method of DPDG, desensitization and processing of psychotrauma by eye movement, resembles the principles of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), where each eye movement (direction of gaze) is directly related to the human representative systems (vision, hearing, kinesthetics). However, the Shapiro method (DPDG) does not focus on human sensors (sense organs).
How to use the DPDG method on your own to recycle trauma, severe stress from the past
Serious stresses, emotional experiences, psychotraumas experienced in the past, such as, for example, rape, military operations, natural disasters, accidents and disasters, leave a deep imprint on the human psyche.
The DPDG method will help you to erase emotional, traumatic memories on your own, processing them through eye movements into something neutral, or even positive.
DPDG is independently used in cases where you clearly realize that the cause of your current (here and now) experiences, reactions to stress, fears and phobias .., other neurotic conditions is psychotrauma, experienced severe stress from the past.
Applying the DPDG technique on your own - step by step instructions
So, to use the DPDG technique on your own, you need to sit comfortably against a free wall. You can turn on relaxing music, the lighting should not be bright, for better relaxation, you can breathe a little deep in your stomach.
Take a small flashlight or a laser pointer in your fingers, which you will drive along the wall opposite.
Prepare in advance your traumatic memory, which you want to process through eye movement ("hang in" in the trauma, in order to avoid activating strong feelings until you need it, just know what you will be working with).
There will be three steps in DPDG, by performing which you will be able to independently process your traumatic events from the past, thereby improving your psycho-emotional state in the present.
Step 1: Relaxing and directing a light pointer (flashlight) to the wall opposite, with a slight movement of one fingers (not the whole hand), slowly move the beam along the wall to the left and right (direct gaze), fix your eyes on the light spot and move them together with the beam - left-right.
Your gaze is focused on the spot of light - this is the foreground. At the same time, try to see in the background, as if looking through the wall, what happened to you in the past. At the same time, processing psycho-traumatic information, imagining something neutral or positive in fantasy.
Continue doing DPDG for 3-5-10 minutes until you feel that that negative past is gradually dissipating, turning into something normal.
Take a sharp, deep breath, and look around the room, alternately focusing on different objects. Rate your emotional state on a 100% scale: 0 - no negative emotion at all - 100% - strong emotion.
You can move on to the next step after rest, or the next day, depending on your energy and emotionality.
Step 2: Do all the same, only the movement of the flashlight and with it the eye - in the form of a recumbent figure eight (infinity sign).
Step 3: The same DPDG technique, but the eye movements are now in a circle (counterclockwise).
Since you will apply the method of desensitization through eye movement on your own, you may not be able to completely recycle the trauma and erase negative emotional memories the first time. Progress, of course, will be, but to completely recycle the stress from the past, it is worth repeating the DPDG technique again.
Also, you can ask a loved one to direct the flashlight beam for you, being behind you, out of sight, thereby freeing you from unnecessary psychoenergetic costs.
Attention! If you have had multiple traumas in the past, you should create a hierarchical list of problems before processing your emotions. And start working with the simplest stressful situations captured in the psyche.
