EMDR light bar

A very serious event can have a very deep impact on a person's life. It is therefore that such an event is called a trauma . The moment after a traumatic event is a shock and your life comes to a standstill for a moment. At that moment you think of nothing else. However, most people recover and give the traumatic event a place and continue with their lives. This depends on your own condition and the severity of the trauma. A small part of the people keeps having trouble processing a traumatic event and has to deal with the consequences of a trauma.

What are the consequences of unprocessed trauma?

Everyone who has experienced a traumatic event needs time to recover. If the trauma is only partially or not at all processed, complaints can arise with sometimes far-reaching consequences. Ultimately, the unprocessed trauma can lead to a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Constantly reliving the trauma and having bad memories and nightmares are the consequences of PTSD. But there are also countless other symptoms of an unprocessed trauma, such as irritability, negative thoughts, depression and anxiety and panic attacks in certain situations. Suicidal thoughts are also a possible consequence.

Avoiding situations

A very important consequence of unresolved trauma is the avoidance of certain situations, locations and sometimes people. The person with the trauma does this because a certain situation will evoke the trauma again. In order to avoid this, they will withdraw and start avoiding situations. That is why many patients are in social isolation. It is common for victims of a trauma to avoid places where there are a lot of people, such as the supermarket, the shopping centre, the cinema or a party. Social isolation can eventually make the symptoms worse.

EMDR therapy may be the solution

Depending on the complaints that have arisen as a result of the trauma, the therapist will choose a treatment. A much-chosen and successfully proven treatment is EMDR. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a form of therapy in which unprocessed trauma is processed on the basis of distraction. This means that the therapist asks the patient to think back to the moment of the trauma. Not only the images, but also the thoughts and feelings have to come back, so that the moment is relived. At the same time, the therapist distracts the patient. This is usually done by a hand gesture that the patient has to follow or by a sound through headphones. The distraction at the moment that the trauma comes back into the picture is crucial for processing the trauma. Because of the distraction, other thoughts and feelings often surface and the trauma is somewhat hidden. Each time the therapist asks about the thoughts and feelings at that moment, the patient is distracted. The patient will notice that it gradually becomes easier to think back to the trauma without too many emotions being involved. The trauma has thus been given a place.

Distraction with EMDR light bar

The classic distraction during a EMDR therapyis by following a hand gesture or by sounds. The distraction is the basis of EMDR, because it appeals to the working memory of the patient and overloads it. This ensures that, at a certain point, the trauma is viewed with less emotion. A more modern way of distraction is light bar EMDR. An EMDR light bar is a tube lamp, in which moving LED lights distract the patient. The light bar is a modern tool for practitioners to apply distraction techniques. The patient has to follow the lights in the light bar, which creates the same distraction as a hand gesture or a sound.

Other EMDR possibilities with Psylaris

Besides a light bar as a modern distraction method, there are more modern developments in the field of EMDR nowadays. Psylaris has developed online EMDR. The patient does not have to visit the treatment centre, but can receive an EMDR treatment at home behind his/her PC or laptop. With the online platform of Psylaris, the practitioner also has more options for distraction tasks. Another method of Psylaris, is through Virtual Reality. These glasses take the patient into a virtual world and can be used both in the treatment room and at home with the patient.