EMDR PRACTITIONER - Borrelli Column: Chapter 6: As If 'Then' were 'Now': Revamping the Time-Line Using EMDR

Chapter 6: As If 'Then' were 'Now': Revamping the Time-Line Using EMDR
Dr Scott Borrelli
2002

Each of us is a unique sum total of our personal and temporal realities. Working with trauma offers a key experience for both therapist and client to witness the influence of time sense on emotional-cognitive life, where well-being is a reflection of the relative balance of time past, present and future. In this article, I hope to summarize my still evolving understanding of how time disequilibria figures into the pain and upset of the trauma victim.

Our view and value of time is dynamic and fluid, changing throughout the life span. Our unique perceptions of these three zones at any point in time - the past as memory, the present as the "here-and-now", and the future as hope and anticipation - account for much of our motivation and behaviour. Perhaps one aspect of good mental health is one’s ability to freely shift between the time zones and, when desired, to objectively experience their contents and impact “in the moment“. We know that trauma freezes people in past time, and generating future based anxiety. Our work as EMDR therapists is to massage and open up the neuro-passageways to rekindle the patient’s abilities to distinguish between past and present, to understand the tyranny of future thinking, and to practice mindfulness.

With the ultimate goal of restoring personal rationality and autonomy, many psychotherapeutic orientations concentrate primarily on one or two of these time zones to access positive change. Hence, we have psychoanalysis concerning itself with the past, Gestalt therapy with the present, and many of the “modern” solution-focused therapies harnessing on the energy pull of the future. The unifying potential of EMDR comes from its integrative orientation and, hence, its all-encompassing time zone focus. This is, perhaps, one of its most inspiring assets.

I have been especially fascinated by the client’s experience and misunderstanding of past, present, and future time, both in the representation of the trauma(s), and in its resolution. Perhaps one of the most profound revelations for the afflicted client is that s/he is responding as if NOW were THEN, thereby categorically denying herself the experience of a current reality, the usually safe “here-and-NOW”. Additionally, this temporal misplacement halts natural affirmative progression into the FUTURE. Once insight into this process is achieved, then the process of therapy is seeded with hope, one of our most powerful therapeutic tools, and clearly the best use of FUTURE time.

Research is suggesting that the “right” brain is where the trauma is imprisoned, in a global, non-verbal, emotional memory set, and devoid of logic and “real” time sense. A traumatised and, therefore, overanxious right brain seems to flex its muscle indiscriminately by overriding new and different (i.e., positive and non-threatening) input. Neutral present realities are distorted by incompletely processed (i.e., under-rationalised) emotional trauma, and the impact of positive “here-and-now” moments is significantly weakened.

Our "emotional" brain, stranded in the past through trauma, incessantly selects and misinterprets current environmental “triggers”, unfortunately evoking the original trauma anxiety. By rerunning past trauma in the moment, or by generating a sense of being persistently on the threshold of disaster, the traumatised person can barely escape the distress of the past. Those of us working with people suffering from post trauma stress observe the ensuing anxiety and its power to contaminate all aspects of a potentially rational and safe present time, as well as a hopeful future orientation. The right brain simply cannot tell time without the participation of left-brain, rational activity.

We take heart in knowing that the exquisitely inventive ability of the emotional brain to distort and ignore time, and to override logical interpretations, is also responsible for producing many of our most cherished moments. Personal growth resulting from insight, harvested from the arts, spirituality, relationship and new learning, seems to promote a welcomed suspension of critical thinking (i.e., “left-brain”) faculties. Comfort and safety in timelessness and spacelessness are peak experiences of which our clients are emphatically deprived, leaving them susceptible to the further ravages of depression, pessimism, and despair. We see these conditions all to often in the wake of inadequately processed traumatic events. EMDR, as we are coming to understand it, restarts and accelerates this natural and adaptive processing.

For the client, it appears that the rational, time-aware left-brain capacity is immobilised across broad aspects of experience. Our logical faculties, which allow us to discriminate between what was then, what is now, and what could be, becomes atrophied. Ultimately, the burden of excluding new and promising input from consciousness renders the individual powerless to participate in the dynamic necessity of an ever-revolving adaptation and renewal process. Frozen in time, the essence of the person deteriorates, increasingly out-of-step and out-of-time…and exhausted from the stress of perpetually defensive manoeuvring.

The process of therapy depends on the mobilisation of the trauma material and the breaking up of its paralysing affects. EMDR addresses runaway and derailed memories, reshuffling them through the natural neuropsychological healing transit until they settle appropriately into past time, where they belong. The sheer automaticity of this natural healing process, once unlocked, allows a positive future vision of the self while allowing a healthfully detached and objective view of the past. Ultimately, the client becomes convinced that happiness is a birthright, possible in spite of the worst of (past) times, gaining strength from the safety and security of the moment. As the adaptive process revives logical activity and begins to liberate the present from the past, the client can “see” again the promise of a brighter future time and its limitless potential. As therapists, it’s a good idea to perform occasional reviews of our own time-line perspectives, as unprocessed past disappointment is likely to contaminate the quality of any current moment. This is the practice of mindfulness.

An important psycho-educational component of the EMDR protocol, then, is to promote deliberate review of personal time zones, and an objective awareness of the potentially chaotic nature of the emotional brain when shocked by trauma. We have the unique ability to fashion a positive present, diminish the impact of memories and anticipations which evoke anxiety, and integrate “the best of” all times. For most distressed clients, the present time is, in REALITY, safe.

Perhaps some of the finest moments in EMDR are when the client regains the ability to discriminate between then and now, permitting re-emergence of a positive future perspective. Finally, the logical ego is repositioned in its natural role, as master of perception and experience, monitoring and eradicating irrationality, and empowering the person to confidently step forward in time from a secure and uncontaminated present.

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