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EMDR For Tinnitus

EMDR is a type of therapy which packs a big punch when it comes to helping someone who is experiencing problematic tinnitus. EMDR is one of several approaches we use to help people with tinnitus.

What is EMDR therapy?

EMDR is an acronym which stands for: Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy. It is the leading evidence based treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD. It can help with trauma, phobias and problematic tinnitus.

EMDR work by way of bilateral stimulation to help the mind and body integrate unprocessed trauma. Bilateral stimulation is administered by way of auditory beats, taps to the body, eye movements, buzzers helps in each hand or a combination of the above.

It enables an independent trauma neural network to connect with other parts of the brain to allow for adaptive information processing. essentially this just means the brain accepts and processes a trauma in the same way as a normal memory. It the mind and body appreciate the trauma is now in the past and can begin the natural healing process instead of keeping the system asa whole on red alert waiting for a danger that has since passed.

How can EMDR help with tinnitus?

So whats the link between something like trauma and tinnitus and why might it be a useful tool for tinnitus sufferers. The important thing to remember is the 'tinnitus sufferers'. These are the people who experience tinnitus and are negatively affected by it. Between 80 and 90 percent of people are not adversely affected by tinnitus. At worst it is a minor annoyance sometimes.

EMDR can help tinnitus sufferers in the following ways:

Trauma associated tinnitus

If your tinnitus was caused by something traumatic like a head injury, car accident or physical attack the trauma experience could be impacting your tinnitus symptoms. Unprocessed trauma affects the experience of tinnitus negatively and the experience of tinnitus also affects the impact of trauma negatively.

PTSD

PTSD is a mental health condition which happens when we become overwhelmed by a traumatic incident. The mind and body are unable to integrate the traumatic experience. Research shows that PTSD negatively impacts tinnitus and problematic tinnitus negatively impacts PTSD symptoms. Essentially they make the each other worse.Processing a traumatic event with EMDR can positively impact tinnitus.

Tinnitus trigger

Trauma associated tinnitus is tinnitus which is caused by trauma. The experience of tinnitus itself can also be traumatic. When the noise of tinnitus is heard a person can experience a fight or flight or stress response. The is especially true in quiet environment like in bed. EMDR can help a person to neutralise their tinnitus trigger to a neutral experience.

Study Showing the Efficacy of EMDR for Tinnitus

A study was carried out in 2019 which treated patients at Norfolk University Hospital NHS foundation Trust. This is a summary of its conclusions.

Tinnitus Symptoms Reduction

Study Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that the provision of EMDR has resulted in a clinically and statistically significant improvement in tinnitus symptoms in the majority of those participants who took part. Furthermore, the treatment effect was maintained at 6 months after treatment ceased. This study is of particular interest, as the study protocol was designed to be purposefully inclusive of a diverse range of tinnitus patients. However, as a small uncontrolled study, these results do not consider the significant effects of placebo and therapist interaction. Larger high-quality studies are essential for the verification of these preliminary results.

EMDR for tinnitus study

What to expect from an EMDR session for tinnitus.

We use EMDR therapy as part of an integrative, holistic approach to tinnitus. We call this tinnitus retraining therapy.

Approaches include:

An EMDR therapy session for tinnitus will look at your history in relation to trauma and tinnitus, your present experience and a desired future experience of tinnitus.

We can only change a negative reaction to tinnitus is we clear away the baggage surrounding problematic tinnitus. This baggage might be trauma or stress related.

We then go on to process historical trauma which is not associated with tinnitus, trauma which is associated to tinnitus, current and future experience of a tinnitus trigger.