Using bilateral stimulation in trauma recovery
Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash
One alternative therapy approach I use in my Splankna practice incorporates algorithms, a tapping and bilateral stimulation technique.
Clients tap on acupressure points while concentrating on a specific emotion and following my moving fingers with their eyes. Algorithms are similar to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR can produce a number of brain benefits for people in trauma recovery, and it can also help manage depression, anxiety and other concerns.
In addition, individuals can learn some self-stimulation techniques to calm stress or panic responses in various situations.
What is bilateral stimulation?
In short, this technique activates both sides of the brain with visual, auditory or tactile inputs. For example, drawing simultaneously with both hands or watching a light on a screen bounce from right to left.
Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., stumbled upon the positive effects of this stimulation while she walked through a park in the 1980s. She had been feeling the negative effects of a distressing memory, but began to feel better after her eyes spontaneously blinked rapidly. She conducted research based on that experience and later discovered the link between her eye movements and bilateral stimulation – as well their ability to defuse a stress response.
For trauma survivors, this therapist explains that the approach:
“...involves dual attention stimulation and consists of a practitioner facilitating bilateral eye movements, taps and sounds as sensory cues with an individual. When combined with trauma narratives, it is believed that visual, auditory or tactile cues help the individual by directing focus on the present rather than what has happened in the past.”
As part of the therapy, your practitioner will direct you to recall a trauma memory or stressful event. Those memories serve to create a typical stress response, while the bilateral stimulation creates a new pattern of electrical activity in your brain. After a number of sessions, the stimulation helps diminish the effect of recalling the traumatic event.
Bilateral stimulation works to create electrical activity in different parts of the brain and encourages better communication between the two sides of the brain. That inter-hemisphere communication could hold a key to better emotional processing and regulation for individuals with PTSD or other concerns.
One study showed a decreased stress response in the amygdala, the area of the brain that processes fear and other emotions, following bilateral stimulation. That study examined more than 1,000 individuals and tracked subjects’ responses to both emotional and physical distress.
Effects of Bilateral Stimulation on Trauma Survivors
Bilateral stimulation and EMDR have been recommended as a therapy for PTSD by both the American Psychological Association and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Why? The results speak for themselves.
As reported by Psycom:
“According to the EMDR Institute Inc., some of the studies on this type of therapy show that 84-90 percent of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100 percent of the single-trauma victims and 77 percent of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77 percent of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions.”
In addition, following sessions with a trained practitioner, trauma survivors can learn some DIY techniques that make use of bilateral stimulation. One of those techniques, tapping (also known as emotional freedom technique or EFT), requires no tools other than your own fingers. A practitioner can teach you how to tap on acupressure points throughout the body that offer bilateral stimulation, which can give you a powerful tool for managing stress responses in the moment.
To learn more about how I apply bilateral stimulation with trauma survivors in my practice, contact me. I would love to help you learn to manage your trauma-induced stress responses and return to a place of resilience and strength.