How is vicarious trauma treated by EMDR therapy?

Traumas are psychological alterations that intensely affect both the personal life and the physical and emotional life of the person who suffers it.

These can arise and be triggered by various disruptive or violent situations; they are, in short, a type of emotional aftermath caused by these events. Now, there are some variants of this phenomenon, and some professions are more susceptible to some of these types of traumatic experiences. Here we will focus on explaining vicarious trauma and its treatment with EMDR therapy .

What is vicarious trauma?

Vicarious trauma is the affectation and psychological exhaustion experienced by some people who must expose themselves to, care for or treat, due to their work, people who are experiencing intense personal tragedies , situations of suffering or who are simply having a very bad time at certain times.

This type of trauma mainly affects professions prone to seeing how others experience traumatic situations, such as health personnel, psychologists, police officers, civil protection personnel, firefighters or armed forces, social workers, etc.

In any of these professions, people are often testimonies of authentic dramas, situations of intense suffering and stories linked to sadness, despair, anguish and other forms of intense discomfort.

In addition to that, the fact of caring for someone who is having a bad time, as happens especially in the case of psychologists and health personnel, often causes a strong emotional bond to be generated with the person in care , which can generate an even greater vicarious trauma, due to the closeness with these individuals and their life stories.

Main characteristics of vicarious trauma

The nature of vicarious trauma can vary in its symptoms depending on each person who experiences it; however, in most cases, it has the following characteristics.

1. Emotional wear and tear

One of the main characteristics of people who develop a vicarious trauma is the tremendous emotional and psychological exhaustion they suffer when dealing with situations of other people's illnesses, misfortunes or all kinds of situations of suffering that affect others.

This psychological wear and tear can be greater or lesser depending on the person and their degree of empathy, and in the long run it can become a real problem for their mental health, if it is not treated in time.

In addition to that, vicarious trauma is associated with the appearance of a series of emotional alterations such as anxiety, depression, stress situations, problems in cognitive abilities (lack of attention or concentration) and also reduced performance labor.

2. Physical wear

Physical wear and tear is also a characteristic of vicarious trauma, since the person who suffers from it experiences a series of physical symptoms that decisively affect their daily physical health .

Some of these physical symptoms experienced in a vicarious trauma case are: sleep disturbances or difficulties sleeping, sweating, rapid heartbeat, skin conditions, pain, and decreased appetite.

3. Loss of healthy habits

As the vicarious trauma progresses in the person's life, it can also happen that they progressively abandon a series of healthy habits that they did maintain before said psychological alteration.

As has been indicated, the person with vicarious trauma usually experiences alterations in their sleep rhythms, which makes it impossible for them to sleep properly, as well as a decrease in appetite and an alteration in their eating habits .

In addition to that, they may also experience changes in their social habits and even a drastic decrease in the person's social contacts, as well as an interruption in their sports and leisure habits and in their personal hygiene habits.

4. Feeling of isolation

Many people with vicarious traumas due to their profession tend to feel more and more isolated from the world, because their trauma occupies an increasingly important space in their lives.

This involuntary or self-imposed isolation must be combated and can be solved by going to a psychologist who will help us overcome the situation of discomfort that we are experiencing.

Your treatment with EMDR therapy

EMDR therapy is a type of psychotherapeutic intervention widely used in patients who are victims of trauma. It is based on the modification of the neuronal connections responsible for the conservation and evocation of memories , especially in relation to the emotional load of these components of memory.

The objective is to carry out a series of non-invasive and totally painless exercises so that, little by little, the person integrates the traumatic memories into their memory system without the activation of those parts of the brain destabilizing the functioning of the entire central nervous system. . In other words, it is not about eliminating or blocking those memories; On the contrary, the aim is to ensure that they are well integrated into the memory so that the dynamic of trying not to think about it does not enter into the dynamics of trying not to think about it, nor does one suffer from anxiety crises or flashbacks every time those memories are evoked (whether voluntarily or deliberately). involuntary).

In the case of vicarious trauma, EMDR therapy offers the possibility of re-examining the history of these people through a more constructive and humanistic perspective, emphasizing the need to accept that in life there is room for discomfort and pain. , without this being a reason to suffer constantly by keeping the attention fixed on the most harmful aspects of those experiences.