What If You Can't Remember Trauma In EMDR Therapy?

Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) has become increasingly popular over the last few years. It’s a safe, effective, and unique form of therapy that can be especially helpful for people who have experienced trauma.

EMDR works by having you recall the traumatic event you’ve been through while your therapist guides you to rapidly move your eyes back and forth. The goal of the treatment is to help you reprocess those traumatic thoughts.

That doesn’t mean you forget your trauma. It simply means you’re able to look at it from a different perspective so it doesn’t control you.

But, what happens if you can’t remember your trauma, in the first place?

Why Can’t You Remember Trauma?

Trauma never really leaves the mind or body. But, that doesn’t mean you’ll always remember the details of what you went through.

That’s especially true when you experienced trauma as a child. Not remembering something traumatic can actually be a defense mechanism your brain is using to protect you. You’ve likely heard of people repressing bad childhood memories, and that’s exactly why.

Unfortunately, again, trauma doesn’t really leave. It gets put into different compartments in the brain so you’re not thinking about it all of the time.

Childhood trauma can be lost in your memories when the hippocampus, the area responsible for such things, doesn’t work to consolidate those memories the way it should. This is your brain protecting you. But, no matter when you experience trauma, the effects of it are likely to come out in some way.

Is Trauma Repression Healthy?

On the surface, it might seem like not remembering a traumatic experience is a good thing. For a short time, that can be the case. When your brain represses these memories to protect you, you can end up living a relatively normal, happy life.

But, again, the effects of trauma are always there. When you’re not coping with it in healthy ways and you don’t work through it properly, unprocessed trauma can have a negative impact on your mental, emotional, and physical health.

How Can EMDR Help?

One of the reasons many people like EMDR is that it’s not quite like traditional forms of talk therapy. There is some talking involved, of course. Your therapist will need to gather some background information and learn more about what you’re experiencing.

But, for the most part, the desensitization and reprocessing steps do the work. When done correctly, EMDR can help you see your trauma in a different light. You’ll still know it happened, but your brain will reprocess it so that it doesn’t feel as overwhelming or controlling.

If you’re worried that you can’t remember your trauma, take a deep breath. A perfect recollection of what happened to you isn’t required for EMDR to be successful. Maybe you went through a traumatic experience in childhood and can’t remember the details. Or, maybe you’ve worked to block out certain things and can’t bring them up again.

Thankfully, even a blurred recollection of what happened to you is usually enough to suffice for EMDR. You might find that when you initially open up about your trauma, you’ll start to remember more details that you want to share with your therapist. Even throughout the desensitization phase, you might remember more than you did when you started.

But, even if you don’t, that’s okay. The trauma that is stored in your mind will be directly impacted by EMDR, so you don’t have to worry about the “small things” making a difference.

If you’ve experienced trauma at any point in your life but have trouble remembering the details, EMDR could be the perfect solution. Feel free to reach out for more information or to set up an appointment soon for EMDR therapy.