The Positive Effects of EMDR in Treating Pain

One of my favorite interventions for treating pain is Eye Movements Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). When combined with mindfulness, I have discovered a remarkable reduction in the sensation of pain when I treat my clients with chronic pain. When a client is able to separate the sensation of pain (which is a very subjective experience) from feelings of anxiety and/or depression then the pain significantly subsides. The theory is that the negative emotions and thoughts associated with pain are just as psychologically painful as the sensation of pain. In fact, I have had many clients tell me that they would rather experience physical pain than psychological/emotional pain. This is especially true of many teens who cut themselves by using physical pain to distract from psychological/ emotional. Clearly, often times psychological/emotional is a worse subjective experience than physical pain.Pain is defined as: "An unpleasant sensory and emotional expereince associated with, or resembling that associated with with actual or potential tissue damage." (https://www.iasp-pain.org>iasp-news, retrieved 7/10/2022).

If the theory holds that psychological/emotional pain is as bad or worse than physical pain, then EMDR can be used with unparalleled success. One of the basic goals of EMDR when treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is to mitigate or eliminate the negative thoughts and feelings regarding a traumatic event experienced by a client. When subjective units of distress are reduced, clients have said to me that they feel "whole again," or "I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted; I feel so much lighter." In much the same way, when I have treated clients with EMDR suffering from severe and chronic pain, I have been told that they feel so much "lighter." Pain is an entirely subjective experience which is virtually impossible to describe in words. Using the concept of subjective units of distress works very well because it can be measured on a scale of 1-10, allowing for an evaluation of subjective pain.

I am a Certified EMDR therapist. I sometimes wonder how any therapist can successfully treat trauma or pain without using EMDR. No other intervention, in my experience, has worked as well in treating pain and/or trauma.

https://neurosciencenews.com/mindfulness-meditation-pain-20987/

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