EMDR for children

How Can EMDR Help Children?

The World Health Organization and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS, 2018) both recommend EMDR for Children and Adolescents with PTSD.

EMDR is effective and well supported by evidence based research for treating children with symptoms accompanying post-traumatic stress (PTSD), attachment issues, dissociation, and self-regulation. It has also been effective in treating symptoms related to guilt, anger, depression, and anxiety, and can be used to boost emotional resources such as confidence and self-esteem.

Younger children can find it difficult to fully engage with some types of talking therapies, so EMDR can be an effective, simpler alternative.

The therapy sessions 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 I 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.

Age for therapy and length of sessions

I work with children aged 9 to 18 and the session can vary from 30 to 60 minutes depending, for example, on the child’s age or his/her cognitive development. A guardian needs to remain in the room with the child although for older children it is possible for the guardian to remain close by (to be discussed with the child and the guardian) with the safety of a zoom link (no sound just image) available.

EMDR explained to children: “Eyes Move to Digest and Recover!”

(credit http://www.AnaGomez.org)

“When horrible or scary things happen to a child, the brain can have a tough time understanding what to do about these scary things. Sometimes these worries build up inside us…. imagine it is much like filling up a toy box until it starts to spill over because it is too full….or blowing up a balloon until it bursts because there is too much air in it. Our brains can get too full too!! This can be a scary thing and can sometimes make us feel sad or mad and feel very frightened or alone. This does not leave much room for nicer, happier thoughts and feelings in our brains and bodies. EMDR helps us to spring clean all the nasty stuff from our brains and bodies and make them feel less ‘full’- but also less scary. When children do EMDR, one of the things they do is move their eyes (and sometimes their hands/feet) over and back from side to side, while they think about the bad thing that happened to them. It is a special kind of ‘eye movement therapy’ that is done with a therapist to help your brain make more room up there for ‘new’ stuff – like learning how to feel less worried or afraid.

Once your brain can swallow up all of these nasty thoughts or feelings, you can start to feel better and less afraid again.” (https://emdrireland.org)