Interview with Cristina Cortés: what is Children's EMDR therapy?

One of the characteristics of childhood is that at this stage one is especially vulnerable to certain situations that leave a strong emotional imprint on us.

Sometimes these kinds of experiences produce lasting discomfort and alter the attitudes and behavior patterns of the child, becoming a problem. Therapy through EMDR is one of the ways in which psychologists can offer professional support in these cases, and on this occasion we interviewed an expert on the subject to understand the use of this tool. Is Cristina Cortés, psychologist at the Vitaliza psychotherapy centerin Pamplona.

• Related article: "The 6 stages of childhood (physical and mental development)"

EMDR therapy in boys and girls: how does it work?

Therapeutic intervention with EMDR for boys and girls is a way to help them integrate memories and emotions that overwhelm the little ones. In this interview with Cristina Cortés, from vitalize center, we will see what this type of therapy consists of and how it is used in a psychology center.

What is, from the perspective of a mental health professional, EMDR therapy?

EMDR therapy is a therapeutic intervention focused on trauma, and recognized for this purpose by the World Health Organization (WHO) for its effectiveness. Clinicians quickly realized that it could be very useful in other situations and therapeutic contexts, such as This is supported by the research that has been carried out in recent years, with very good results. promising.

We can consider EMDR as a psychotherapeutic approach in the treatment of different and very varied emotional problems, always secondary to experiences that have overwhelmed us or overwhelm us in difficult moments of our lives and that end up appearing in form of phobias, panic attacks, unresolved grief or post-traumatic stress derived from accidents, natural disasters, wars, deaths unforeseen

And from the patient's perspective?

From the patient's perspective, the use of eye movements or bilateral stimulation used in some phases of the protocol is striking. Bilateral stimulation is a key element of intervention when processing traumatic or disturbing memories.

What are the particularities of EMDR therapy applied to boys and girls? Is it more useful in this age group?

EMDR therapy in children and adolescents takes into account, above all, the maturational development of the child or young, adapting to their maturational characteristics, as well as the age at which the traumatic or adverse.

We must not forget that when accessing these memories, state memories can be activated, which condition the resources with which that is answered at that moment, something that must also be taken into account when adequately adapting the protocol EMDR. It is also very important to include parents in the therapeutic process, making them participants in the evolution and the improvement of their children and thus enhancing the connection and security that they feel in the relationship with their parents.

From my perspective and clinical experience, EMDR is an intervention that facilitates therapy for multiple problems and difficulties throughout development. Development in itself is a conquest of abilities and resources that can sometimes surpass the child and more so if the family system is going through different situations of stress, losses, etc.

EMDR is a young therapy, and its application and adaptation to the child and adolescent population is even younger. The clinical results in the child and adolescent population are good and the latest studies carried out corroborate it. Still, more research is needed. The EMDR Spain Association participates in a study that is being carried out on the Scale of Family Experiences in childhood.

Specific EMDR training for children and adolescents not only trains professionals who work with this age group to use the developmental EMDR protocol and adapt to the needs of the child in each phase of the intervention, but also helps every therapist EMDR that works with the traumatic child or adult population to adequately manage the infantile states that may appear during the sessions.

What are the problems that fathers and mothers encounter in the psychological development of their children? children and who, by going to the psychologist for help, can give way to an intervention with EMDR?

The most general difficulties that parents encounter during development are around the introduction of limits, dealing with tantrums, difficulties falling asleep, managing nightmares and night terrors, and separation anxiety or bullying. Many of them are tainted by the lack of time and the rush that characterizes us as a society and that exert so much damage inevitably in relationships, and especially in attachment relationships between parents and children.

In some cases, the difficulties are due more to the fact that parenting activates parental nurturing and attachment models, and these they relive their experiences in early relationships as a background drum roll, thus conditioning their responses with their own children. In these cases, the intervention falls on the relationship, both on the parents and on the child.

In others, they are specific situations experienced by the child, where he has seen his coping resources overwhelmed and the experience has generated an emotional impact from which he is unable to free himself.

Can it be said that EMDR therapy helps to reconcile with certain emotional memory contents?

Yes, of course, emotional memory depends on our relational history and the risky or dangerous situations that we have experienced or perceived. All of them can be processed through EMDR. We do not change the facts that overwhelmed us, but how we position ourselves before them, with a new and broader perspective.

EMDR therapy is being used more and more to improve attachment styles. Research with adopted and foster children begins to show positive results. Specifically, at our center, in Vitaliza, we are carrying out EMDR research with children who have suffered early abandonment.

Likewise, an investigation with EMDR has been carried out in Spain, with immigrant unaccompanied minors, which shows evidence of the reduction of symptoms after the intervention.

• You may be interested in: "Emotional memory: what is it and what is its biological basis?"

It may not be easy to make the little ones understand what this therapeutic procedure consists of. How do you explain it in Vitaliza?

Therapy with the little ones is introduced through games, drawings, sandboxes, puppets, stories, etc. Through these elements we are explaining what the therapy consists of, how your brain and your body have the ability to digest memories that have somehow frozen and make them feel bad, how every night they unknowingly use REM (Rapid Movement Eyes), to try to digest those memories, and how with EMDR we are going to use those same eye movements so that those memories stop bother them

the illustrated tale How can I get out of here? of which I am the author, has been one more way to explain and introduce EMDR therapy to both families and children. The truth is that, in general, they do not have much difficulty understanding it.

What are the first changes for the better that children notice in their lives after starting EMDR therapy?

In general, there is a reduction in symptoms; improves mood, falls asleep better, increases optimism. It is curious, for example, how both the quality and quality of the drawings improve. I love when they say, "that's it, it's gone..." it's a way of telling us that what really hurt them has stopped doing it.