Last week we discussed EMDR therapy. This week, we’ll go more in depth into how EMDR therapy works, including what AIP is and how it influences how EMDR is done and understood.
What is AIP?
AIP stands for Adaptive Information Processing. This theory was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro, who is also the person who developed EMDR therapy. AIP revolves around how the brain stores memories and information. According to AIP, traumatic and normal memories are not stored by the brain in the same way. That’s why traumatic memories can result in unpleasant or distressing symptoms.
Normal memories follow an expected neural pathway from the moment they happen to the moment they’re stored. Within the AIP model, during traumatic or very distressing events, our brain actually “goes offline”. Essentially, parts of the neural network shut down. This shutdown then causes the memories of these events to be stored improperly. This improper storage is what inhibits healing and proper processing of these memories. The processing that gets interrupted is usually the part of the storage that tells your brain the event has actually ended. Because your brain thinks the event never ended, you’re constantly in survival mode, which can contribute to symptoms that we often see in PTSD, like hypervigilance and being easily startled.
Not only is the brain still in survival mode because of improper storage, usually the emotions we had been feeling in those moments are also stored along with the memory. And this is why we see symptoms like the nightmares that those with PTSD often report, along with other symptoms like flashbacks.
How does EMDR “fix” traumatic memories?
Using the AIP theory, EMDR therapy works by helping people to reprocess their memories about traumatic events. The clinician will give the individual instructions and usually the client is also doing certain eye movements while thinking about or describing these events. This helps take the “danger” out of the memory and allows the brain to store the memories as normal experiences without attaching feelings or emotions to it. Because the symptoms of PTSD and other traumatic disorders are attached to the feelings behind the memory, by processing them as ‘normal’ memories, the symptoms usually lessen and eventually go away through EMDR therapy.
What does EMDR look like?
EMDR is usually done in phases.
Phase one is the assessment phase in which the clinician will get your information. This information includes not just your trauma history but also a general psychological history, family history, and medical history. This is also a great time to talk about if you’ve ever tried therapy before, especially for trauma, and describe your experiences with it.
Phase two is a preparatory stage. The clinician explains the details of how EMDR works, gives the client instructions on how to move their eyes and whatever other instructions the clinician uses during EMDR.
Phase three involves identifying the memory that will be the target of the therapy. If someone has more than one target memory, then they will work to determine which memory to start with. For EMDR, it’s important to work on one traumatic event at a time in order to properly reprocess it.
Phase four onward is working through reprocessing the target memory. Generally, this goes to phase 8. With most clients, one session is a phase and EMDR therapy works effectively to quickly work through reprocessing and does not often take many sessions.
Phase 8 is an evaluation of treatment. This is where individuals will determine with their clinician if the memory has been properly reprocessed in an adaptive way. If not, treatment will restart at phase four. If it has, treatment ends or another target memory is chosen.
