EMDR Therapy
EMDR Therapy For Children & Adolescents
EMDR can be adapted depending upon the specific needs and developmental stage of your child or adolescent. For example, pictures may be used instead of words, or the therapist may write a story or narrative about the traumatic events to make the therapy more accessible to children who are struggling to talk about the trauma.
What Is EMDR?
EMDR is a treatment model that uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping just to name a few) to activate the brain in a way that processes and resolves ‘stuck’ traumatic memories, so they no longer negatively impact on us. In a sense, EMDR ‘kick-starts’ the brain’s natural healing process and gets it moving again.
Pathways start connecting between the emotional part of the brain and the part of the brain that thinks logically. Your child is likely to start thinking differently about the memory, and it will likely have much less of a negative impact on their life.
How Is EMDR Used To Treat Children & Adolescents?
The EMDR process varies for each child and is highly individualized, due to the healing process being guided from within. Some children report that EMDR is relaxing and have an immediate positive response. Other children may feel tired at the end of a session, and the benefit from the treatment comes in the weeks that follow.
What Is The Impact Of Trauma?
Our brain has capacity to heal, just like the body does. However, when we experience a traumatic event, the memory of this event may not be processed in the same way that an ordinary memory is processed and may get ‘stuck’ in the body and mind.
As a result, the memory may get ‘frozen in time’ or what we refer to sometimes as “trauma time”. We then may feel as though we are reliving the event over and over and experiencing the thoughts and feelings that we had at the time of the trauma.
Trauma Can Present In Children & Adolescents as:
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares
- Intrusive thoughts
- Behaviour (especially for children and adolescents)
- Including dysregulation or challenges with school
How EMDR Helps With Trauma & PTSD
EMDR is an evidenced based psychotherapy, recognised by the World Health Organisation (2013) as an effective therapy for children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events.
It also has the highest recommendation for Children and Adolescents with PTSD from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS, 2018).
Trauma can be any adverse event that impacts someone’s emotional, physical, or spiritual safety or changes the way they look at themselves or the world around them.
What evidence is there that EMDR is a successful treatment?
EMDR is an innovative treatment which has successfully helped over a million individuals worldwide and its validity and reliability has been established through clinical research with infants as young as 18 months of age. EMDR Therapy is a highly effective method of treatment that is endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The database of research can be found here at: https://www.emdr.com/research-overview/.
Contact CoRe Kids Therapy
At CoRe Kids Therapy, we can provide EMDR Therapy at both our Moorabbin and Yarraville clinics. Contact us on 0401 517 014 or email admin@corekidstherapy.com.au to learn more about the therapy and how it may assist your child or adolescent in healing from trauma.