Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Welcome to Bryan Health Podcast. I'm Melanie Cole. And joining me today is Cindy Hollister. She's a licensed independent clinical social worker with Bryan Counseling Center, and she specializes in counseling for adults experiencing severe trauma disorders, such as complex posttraumatic stress disorder and dissociative disorders.

She's here to tell us about a form of therapy today called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing or EMDR treatment, which really is specialized treatment for trauma counseling. Cindy, thank you so much for joining us today. Tell us a little bit about EMDR and a little of the history of this.

Cindy Hollister: Well, thank you for having me join you. EMDR was designed by Francine Shapiro, who is a PhD, and she designed it almost 40 years ago. It stands for eye movement desensitization reprocessing, but they've also learned that you can use bilateral stimulation with headphones and with tappers as well, and that it is primarily used to treat PTSD, but they've also realized you can use it for other kinds of mental health disorders such as anxiety disorders and depression.

Melanie Cole, MS: I'd like you to expand just a minute, Cindy, about that. So, who can benefit from EMDR? What types of traumas? And you mentioned anxiety disorders, but what problems really can it address when you talk about posttraumatic stress disorder? Because there's a lot of it, and then there's also a lot going on in the country today. People have a little bit of PTSD from COVID, but there's also so many mental epidemic things going on right now. What are you talking about?

Cindy Hollister: Well, not everyone who experiences a traumatic event develops PTSD. But sometimes, people who have a traumatic event such as a motor vehicle accident or if they even experience a natural disaster like a tornado or a hurricane, they can experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder where they might have flashbacks of the event or be extremely anxious or hypervigilant or have a startle response that continues way past the event and is disruptive in their regular life.

And so in an effort to decrease that heightened awareness and that anxiety, they have found that a single event such as a motor vehicle accident or even a sexual assault, the anxiety can be significantly reduced almost 100% of the time with a few sessions of EMDR, and that's with a single event. They do utilize EMDR successfully for people who have had multiple events in their past, including child abuse or repeated abuse in their past, that they can benefit from this type of therapy.

Melanie Cole, MS: Wow. That's amazing. So then tell us how it works.

Cindy Hollister: So, an EMDR session is like a person coming to a therapist and the therapist taking a real thorough history and develop a client treatment plan and have the client explain specifically what the traumatic event was and how they are affected by it. And the client needs to be aware and willing to experience some strong feelings while this type of therapy is done. And sometimes disturbing thoughts occur during this kind of treatment as well.

The options for that bilateral stipulation include eye movements, where they watch the therapist's fingers go back and forth, or a light bar go back and forth across a visual field, or they can hold tappers that stimulate kinesthetically the stimulation back and forth from right to left. Or they can use headphones for auditory stimulation right back and forth. The client's asked to visualize the event and to identify thoughts and beliefs surrounding that event. And they're also encouraged to allow their brain to do the processing. And a lot of times, people are able to process it much faster, much more efficiently than regular talk therapy or traditional cognitive behavioral therapy.

Melanie Cole, MS: So in some ways, this sounds like facing your fears and then working through that or past it. It must be so interesting, but really tough for the patient. Tell us what it's like for them.

Cindy Hollister: Well, the patient is asked to hold those thoughts and beliefs with a picture of the event together and allow their brain to do the work. Sometimes it's very helpful very quickly, and sometimes it's not, but they are in charge the entire time that this is taking place. They can stop or start at any time. Their brain does the work. The client is always asked to rate their level of disturbance before and after each section of time. And they are fully alert, wide awake, and completely aware of what's going on. This is not a form of hypnosis. It is their own brain doing the work, their own ability to hold this trauma together and process through difficult times.

Melanie Cole, MS: How effective is it? What have you seen as far as outcomes and success?

Cindy Hollister: I personally have seen a lot of success with single-event traumas, and that is consistent with the research that has been done over the last 30 some years, in that it's very successful with single events. It takes more time and is maybe less successful, but still in the 70% success rates with longer term repeated traumas.

Melanie Cole, MS: How does someone get in touch with the Bryan Counseling Center? Tell us a little bit about your center and your team and the services that you offer.

Cindy Hollister: The Bryan Counseling Center has approximately 12 full time therapists that see a variety of age groups. You can access it by calling the main number, 402-481-5991, and talking with the admissions coordinator to assist you in finding a therapist. There are three full time therapists that do EMDR among this group and are able to work with different age groups, including children, adolescents and adults.

Melanie Cole, MS: So, I'd like you to summarize for us, Cindy, before we wrap up, because this is a very interesting form of therapy that I think not that many people have heard about. So, I'd like you to just tell the listeners what you would like them to know if they or a loved one has suffered some sort of trauma and how this type of therapy, EMDR, can really help them.

Cindy Hollister: I would like people to understand that this kind of therapy has been around for almost 40 years. It has been well researched and it has been validated and it is reliable kind of treatment for people who go to a trained therapist in EMDR for some relief of the symptoms that occur for some people after a trauma.

The APA, the American Psychiatric Association, the Psychological Association, and initially it was very well researched by the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, because it was very helpful for veterans who came back from being in action in the military way that we're experiencing PTSD. So, it's a very effective treatment that can give some relief to those trauma symptoms.

Melanie Cole, MS: Well, it certainly has been well researched. And thank you so much, Cindy, for joining us today. I'd also like to thank our Bryan Foundation partner, Inpatient Physician Associates. To listen to more podcasts from our experts, please visit bryanhealth. org slash podcasts. That concludes this episode of Bryan Health Podcast. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.