Integrating DBT and EMDR Therapy to Heal Trauma

Leeann Martinez, LMSW is an EMDR-trained therapist and a DBT-trained therapist. Today she explains how these two therapy techniques can complement one another in the process of trauma therapy.

Healing from past traumatic events can seem like an overwhelming task. This task becomes immense when there are daily symptoms that are affecting a person. Most people who have experienced traumatic experiences can relate to their thought patterns being affected, as well as bodily and emotional responses to triggering events. 

Combining EMDR therapy and DBT therapy can be a helpful way to target behaviors and thoughts (top-down processing) and body sensations and memories affected by trauma (bottom-up processing). Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based treatment that is utilized to help you heal from the symptoms of your traumatic experiences. EMDR therapy accesses the memory of a traumatic event to reprocess it and adapt the way the information is processed in the body and brain. 

One of the beginning stages of EMDR therapy is called the Preparation Phase. In this phase, you and your EMDR therapist will work together to assess if EMDR therapy is a good treatment for you, initiate your treatment plan, and increase your skills and resources. Developing a wealth of skills and resources, is often where DBT therapy can help. 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a set of skill-based behaviors related to mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT therapy assists to educate you on healthy and adaptive forms of behavior in your relationship with yourself and others, as well as how to manage your symptoms in a healthy and constructive way. When using DBT in conjunction with EMDR, you and your therapist can make a useful treatment plan designed for you. (1) 

As you try out the DBT therapy skills,  you learn, you can make note of the DBT therapy skills that really work for you, and inform your therapist. Your favorite DBT therapy skills can be utilized before, during, and after EMDR therapy, as well as in-between EMDR therapy sessions. 

Trauma can cause symptoms that result in maladaptive behaviors. Examples of common maladaptive behaviors are avoidance, withdrawal, self-harm, substance use, etc. When using EMDR therapy and DBT therapy together, not only can you process how these issues came about, but you can learn and enlist skills to assist in changing that behavior. Utilizing both of the treatments together can assist in a holistic treatment plan for you to heal your past, and work towards a great future. 

When someone goes through a traumatic experience, it is common that certain conversations, behaviors, places, smells, people, etc. can trigger traumatic memories or trauma symptoms. When people are experiencing a trauma trigger, they often feel they can participate in maladaptive behaviors on negative coping behaviors, some identified previously. DBT therapy skills can help manage these triggers when not in session and can give you a chance to try out adaptive behaviors that help manage the triggers. It is likely that these helpful skills will not have the same consequences as the maladaptive ones. (2) 

EMDR therapy can be a very empowering treatment to receive, and it can at times be a tiring treatment to participate in. Your trauma therapist can utilize DBT therapy skills to assist you in coming to a more grounded and calm space, before leaving the session and managing any distress that may happen during the EMDR therapy process. 

You may have had a trauma trigger at an inconvenient time. Enlisting EMDR therapy skills can help you learn how to contain your trauma until you decide it is the right time to process it. Combining EMDR and DBT can be a helpful way to alter your thinking and your responses to adverse situations. 

If you think EMDR therapy, DBT therapy, or a combination of the two may be a good match for your mental health therapy needs, we are ready to help! Whether online therapy, in person at our Arlington, TX base therapy office, or through group therapy, we have options to meet your needs. Connect with a member of our team today.