Ana Gomez, a game changer in the field of EMDR, coined the term “Eyes Moving to Digest and Recover” (EMDR) to help children understand how their brains may be processing yucky thoughts and feelings.
When kids receive EMDR, they move their eyes from one side to another while they think about the yucky things that happened to them. They may also tap their hands on their knees back and forth or use sound or music that alternates from one ear to the other.
When yucky things happen, the brain has a hard time putting all the pieces together and as a result, things that people say or do or things that kids see, hear, smell, or touch can bring up the yucky memories, the mixed-up thoughts, feelings and body feelings connected to those yucky things. EMDR helps the brain put all the pieces together so the yucky stuff can leave us and the good stuff or the things we learned from it can stay so we get stronger. (Ana Gomez, 2020)