A New Point of View
A new type of behavioral health therapy helps our patients heal from trauma
Children and families seek treatment at the Cook Children’s Rees-Jones Behavioral Health Center for a number of reasons, including the lasting effects of trauma. Traditional treatments can sometimes be stressful to kids, requiring patients to talk in detail about a traumatic event or complete “homework” between sessions.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) helps patients heal from symptoms and emotional distress by briefly focusing on the traumatic event while simultaneously focusing their eyes on an external stimulation. EMDR has shown to be effective in reducing the vividness and emotion associated with a traumatic experience.
Rather than changing thoughts and behaviors associated with a traumatic event, this type of therapy allows the brain to heal itself naturally, without intense focus on the event itself. This can be particularly helpful for patients experiencing conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which commonly causes the patient to avoid anything that might trigger a memory of their trauma. Though the experience is still remembered, EMDR can help resolve the associated symptoms and conditions, such as the body’s natural “fight, flight or freeze” response.
Since 2016, more than seven million people have been successfully treated with EMDR worldwide. EMDR is particularly effective in treating children, because it allows the patient to use their imagination to improve their sense of felt safety.
Joy Crabtree, Ph.D., a Cook Children’s psychologist, said EMDR often helps patients heal quicker than traditional therapies.
“EMDR is an effective treatment tool for children and adolescents who have been impacted by trauma as well as complex trauma,” Dr. Crabtree said. “Often, it can help them move forward and implement healthier coping strategies more quickly than traditional talk therapy or play therapy and can be used with a variety of ages as well.”
Recalling memories of trauma that occurred many years ago can be a challenge for patients and is often a barrier to traditional therapies. But Amanda Smith, Ph.D., a Cook Children’s psychologist, said EMDR can help.
“EMDR offers a structured, but flexible, format that can be tailored for children and teens, as well as other special populations,” Dr. Smith said. “I have found it to be particularly useful in helping address preverbal trauma, in which events from very early childhood are more difficult to access than other memories.”
EMDR is a formal mental health intervention, and therefore must be performed by a trained and licensed professional. Recognizing the impact this treatment could have on our behavioral health patients, the Rees-Jones Foundation made a generous gift that has allowed Cook Children’s to train and license 16 professionals and purchase necessary equipment.