WEBVTT 00:01.747 --> 00:04.164 (soft music) 00:10.880 --> 00:13.463 (upbeat music) 00:32.500 --> 00:35.850 I wanna salute all of you who are still here 00:35.850 --> 00:37.570 and, you know, I can kind of see 00:39.093 --> 00:43.080 your prefrontal cortices smoking and smoldering 00:44.370 --> 00:47.070 from all the information you've been given. 00:47.070 --> 00:52.070 And I wanted to say how much I appreciate 00:53.220 --> 00:55.500 being here and being asked to be here. 00:55.500 --> 00:57.780 I have the best job in the world. 00:57.780 --> 01:00.510 I get to see severely traumatized individuals 01:00.510 --> 01:04.713 get better really quickly through EMDR. 01:07.320 --> 01:12.320 My talk this afternoon is like the others 20 minutes. 01:13.650 --> 01:17.340 And I realized as I put this talk together 01:17.340 --> 01:21.270 that if I explained the slides 01:21.270 --> 01:25.080 that I would be showing would never get through this. 01:25.080 --> 01:27.900 So I'm gonna pretty much ask you 01:27.900 --> 01:30.450 to just give me your attention 01:30.450 --> 01:34.770 and I will point out a few things on a few slides, 01:34.770 --> 01:37.293 but mostly I'm gonna talk about EMDR. 01:38.160 --> 01:41.140 I also noticed where I appeared on the program 01:42.570 --> 01:44.313 being the second last speaker, 01:45.390 --> 01:49.710 and I was thinking, what am I gonna do? 01:49.710 --> 01:51.390 How am I gonna start this out? 01:51.390 --> 01:53.673 So I decided to start out with a story, 01:55.200 --> 02:00.200 and this story has a metaphoric relationship with EMDR. 02:06.510 --> 02:07.620 And I'm not gonna tell you what 02:07.620 --> 02:09.810 that metaphoric relationship is. 02:09.810 --> 02:14.130 I'll let you decide what it is as we go through this. 02:14.130 --> 02:17.160 But the story goes, this guy is walking 02:17.160 --> 02:18.760 through a rural Ireland 02:20.250 --> 02:25.250 and he passes the cottage that has a sign on it that says, 02:25.980 --> 02:27.453 talking dog for sale. 02:28.590 --> 02:30.210 So he thinks that's kind of interesting. 02:30.210 --> 02:33.480 He knocks on the door and says, "Excuse me, 02:33.480 --> 02:37.380 do you really have a talking dog for sale?" 02:37.380 --> 02:40.440 And the owner says, "Yeah, he's in the backyard. 02:40.440 --> 02:42.117 You can have a look if you want." 02:42.990 --> 02:45.090 And so he goes to the backyard and there's a dog 02:45.090 --> 02:47.700 and he says, "Excuse me, are you the talking dog?" 02:47.700 --> 02:50.187 And the dog says, "Yeah, that's me." 02:51.390 --> 02:53.280 And he says, "Well, this is really pretty amazing. 02:53.280 --> 02:56.727 How did you ever become a talking dog?" 02:58.290 --> 03:02.580 And the dog says, "Well, when I was just a puppy, 03:02.580 --> 03:04.410 I realized that I had the capacity 03:04.410 --> 03:06.240 to understand the spoken word. 03:06.240 --> 03:07.830 So I worked really assiduously 03:07.830 --> 03:09.990 to acquire the ability to speak it. 03:09.990 --> 03:11.280 And one thing led to another, 03:11.280 --> 03:14.520 and pretty soon I was working for a local constable 03:14.520 --> 03:17.070 and we made a few drug busts and caught 03:17.070 --> 03:21.240 a few terrorists and word spread. 03:21.240 --> 03:26.240 I started working for Interpol, you know, bigger drug busts, 03:26.460 --> 03:29.553 more arrest of terrorists. 03:31.530 --> 03:35.580 And then I got sent to the United States 03:35.580 --> 03:37.590 and I worked for the CIA and the DIA 03:37.590 --> 03:40.320 and Department of Homeland Security. 03:40.320 --> 03:42.120 And now I'm back at home. 03:42.120 --> 03:44.100 A dog's life is short, you know? 03:44.100 --> 03:46.680 And it's been a good life. 03:46.680 --> 03:48.750 And I'm in retirement now." 03:48.750 --> 03:52.080 And so the man rushes up to the owner 03:52.080 --> 03:55.080 and says, "That dog is amazing. 03:55.080 --> 03:59.190 How much do you want for that talking dog?" 03:59.190 --> 04:04.190 And the owner says, "I don't know," he says, "10 pounds." 04:05.730 --> 04:07.860 And he says, "10 pounds? 04:07.860 --> 04:09.930 That dog is worth thousands. 04:09.930 --> 04:11.247 Why is so cheap?" 04:12.330 --> 04:14.010 And the owner says, "Well, it's all bullshit. 04:14.010 --> 04:15.512 He never did any of that stuff." 04:15.512 --> 04:18.512 (audience laughing) 04:22.800 --> 04:24.678 Okay, now that I have your attention, 04:24.678 --> 04:27.261 (all laughing) 04:28.500 --> 04:32.310 I would like to say that I have a white paper 04:32.310 --> 04:34.110 that will be available online. 04:34.110 --> 04:35.430 It's about 50 pages 04:35.430 --> 04:38.430 and goes into much more detail about the research 04:38.430 --> 04:43.430 that we've done that I really am not able to go into here. 04:44.040 --> 04:49.040 And also the slides will be available. 04:49.740 --> 04:54.740 And so I'm just gonna talk without going into details 04:55.080 --> 04:57.690 about those things so we can get through 04:57.690 --> 04:59.493 what I think is really important. 05:02.670 --> 05:07.020 For those who don't know too much about EMDR, 05:07.020 --> 05:10.353 and I think there are a lot of people that fit into that. 05:11.520 --> 05:15.400 EMDR is a form of therapy that is extremely 05:16.410 --> 05:19.170 powerful with persons who've been 05:19.170 --> 05:20.820 psychologically traumatized. 05:20.820 --> 05:24.660 It also is useful in cases 05:24.660 --> 05:26.640 where people are emotionally stuck, 05:26.640 --> 05:30.390 whether they're stuck in anxiety or depression 05:30.390 --> 05:34.320 or anger or rage or fearfulness. 05:34.320 --> 05:39.320 EMDR can be useful, even though no trauma has been found. 05:39.810 --> 05:41.973 It helps people get unstuck. 05:42.870 --> 05:46.050 And it's been around for about 25 years. 05:46.050 --> 05:50.190 The first research appeared in 1989, 05:50.190 --> 05:53.850 and in that study they took a group of Vietnam veterans 05:53.850 --> 05:58.683 who back then, 20 to 30 years after Vietnam, 05:59.850 --> 06:03.120 still had PTSD symptoms, nightmares, flashbacks, 06:03.120 --> 06:04.860 and intrusive thoughts. 06:04.860 --> 06:06.720 And these guys had been in every form 06:06.720 --> 06:09.060 of therapy known they'd been in every different kind 06:09.060 --> 06:13.920 of medication possible, but they still had their symptoms 06:13.920 --> 06:16.420 and they put 'em through one session of EMDR 06:17.490 --> 06:19.920 and they lost their PTSD symptoms. 06:19.920 --> 06:23.070 So it was a really striking kind of finding. 06:23.070 --> 06:25.530 And then my associates and myself 06:25.530 --> 06:28.710 expanded on that original research only now 06:28.710 --> 06:30.840 with a much larger sample 06:30.840 --> 06:33.453 and much more strict scientific controls. 06:36.330 --> 06:39.570 And so in a 1995 study, 06:39.570 --> 06:44.570 we got 80 adult individuals who were severely traumatized 06:46.740 --> 06:51.740 and we provided them with, first of all, 06:52.080 --> 06:55.530 an intense battery of psychological instruments 06:55.530 --> 06:59.790 and found that they were normally high in anxiety 06:59.790 --> 07:02.940 and depression and PTSD symptoms. 07:02.940 --> 07:06.843 And then we provided them with three sessions of the EMDR. 07:08.550 --> 07:10.170 And when we remeasured them 07:10.170 --> 07:12.723 after those three sessions, we've now found 07:12.723 --> 07:15.810 that they fell in normal limits on anxiety, 07:15.810 --> 07:18.600 depression, and PTSD symptoms. 07:18.600 --> 07:20.670 And we followed up three months later, 07:20.670 --> 07:23.910 found the results held and got that published 07:23.910 --> 07:28.320 in the most scientifically rigorous 07:28.320 --> 07:31.113 journal in Clinical Psychology. 07:32.040 --> 07:37.040 And then 15 months later, we went back to see 07:37.650 --> 07:41.020 how these individuals were doing 07:42.060 --> 07:44.580 15 months after just those three sessions. 07:44.580 --> 07:49.230 And at that point found that 84% 07:49.230 --> 07:53.073 were functioning normally as they had before their traumas. 07:54.090 --> 07:57.180 And the other 16% showed some improvement, 07:57.180 --> 08:01.050 but almost definitely needed more than the three studies, 08:01.050 --> 08:03.870 three sessions we provided in that study. 08:03.870 --> 08:08.460 And we got that published in the same journal. 08:08.460 --> 08:12.780 And since then we've continued doing research with children, 08:12.780 --> 08:16.350 with children of war, with children on a group basis, 08:16.350 --> 08:18.450 with police officers. 08:18.450 --> 08:23.450 And in this arcane area of phantom limb pain, 08:24.600 --> 08:27.570 I also did a case series 08:27.570 --> 08:31.680 with 108 consecutive motor vehicle accident victims, 08:31.680 --> 08:35.970 all of whom had PTSD, most of whom had injuries. 08:35.970 --> 08:39.873 And in that case, series of 108, 08:41.130 --> 08:43.810 it took an average of five sessions 08:46.350 --> 08:51.120 for them to be able to drive comfortably again 08:51.120 --> 08:54.300 and lose their nightmares and flashbacks 08:54.300 --> 08:56.040 and intrusive thoughts. 08:56.040 --> 08:59.880 Now, if anything indicates neuroplasticity, 08:59.880 --> 09:01.140 it's this kind of model 09:01.140 --> 09:03.360 where you have normal brain functioning, 09:03.360 --> 09:06.090 you have a trauma, and following the trauma, 09:06.090 --> 09:09.270 the entire nervous system is dysregulated. 09:09.270 --> 09:12.090 And then you have a method of treatment 09:12.090 --> 09:16.740 that helps to reregulate the nervous system. 09:16.740 --> 09:20.823 Now this particular slide, the SUD scale. 09:21.690 --> 09:26.690 SUDS is a unit of, or a scale from zero to 10 09:28.110 --> 09:29.310 that indicates the amount 09:29.310 --> 09:31.830 of psychological distress a person has. 09:31.830 --> 09:34.620 And so with these 80 individuals, 09:34.620 --> 09:36.700 you can see that they started out 09:37.920 --> 09:40.353 at a very high level of distress. 09:41.370 --> 09:43.383 And after the first session, 09:44.640 --> 09:46.890 okay, high level of distress 09:46.890 --> 09:49.800 between eight and nine, we have immediate treatment 09:49.800 --> 09:51.960 and we have delayed treatment. 09:51.960 --> 09:55.680 And initially they're between eight and nine. 09:55.680 --> 09:57.870 And after the first session, 09:57.870 --> 09:59.523 at the end of the first session, 10:00.390 --> 10:02.310 they're down between three and four. 10:02.310 --> 10:03.960 We have the second session goes, 10:03.960 --> 10:06.460 goes down further at the end of the third session, 10:07.380 --> 10:08.853 really quite low. 10:10.320 --> 10:13.953 VOC is a measure of, 10:16.410 --> 10:19.470 really self-efficacy more than anything else. 10:19.470 --> 10:23.460 And so initially these people asked what they'd like 10:23.460 --> 10:26.970 to believe about themselves in relation to the trauma. 10:26.970 --> 10:28.860 And they said things like, 10:28.860 --> 10:30.810 I'd like to think that I was competent. 10:30.810 --> 10:33.210 I did the best I could. 10:33.210 --> 10:37.380 I learned from it, it wasn't my fault. 10:37.380 --> 10:40.773 And initially on this measure, 10:42.900 --> 10:44.820 it didn't seem very true, 10:44.820 --> 10:49.480 but increased in in how much 10:50.370 --> 10:52.950 they could believe that was true 10:52.950 --> 10:54.723 on a scale from one to seven. 10:55.650 --> 10:58.863 So that was one of the process measures. 11:00.330 --> 11:03.120 Actually two of the process measures, 11:03.120 --> 11:08.120 and I'm gonna skip over these. 11:08.433 --> 11:10.500 On one of those tests. 11:10.500 --> 11:12.153 This is fairly typical. 11:13.770 --> 11:17.343 One of the major classes, I'm sorry. 11:22.920 --> 11:27.920 One of the major symptom groups in PTSD 11:28.250 --> 11:30.360 as symptoms of intrusion, such things 11:30.360 --> 11:33.420 as nightmares and flashbacks and intrusive thoughts. 11:33.420 --> 11:38.130 And these individuals in both the treatment 11:38.130 --> 11:40.030 and delayed treatment groups started 11:42.600 --> 11:44.910 standard deviation above the mean. 11:44.910 --> 11:46.230 And by the end of treatment 11:46.230 --> 11:47.940 and three month follow up, 11:47.940 --> 11:50.310 they were pretty much at the mean 11:50.310 --> 11:53.220 in terms of intrusive symptoms. 11:53.220 --> 11:56.880 And with avoidance, 11:56.880 --> 11:59.070 another major symptom group, we found the same thing. 11:59.070 --> 12:01.533 It went down, stayed down for both groups, 12:03.780 --> 12:05.160 A measure of anxiety. 12:05.160 --> 12:08.740 They started out really between 12:12.330 --> 12:14.460 two and three standard deviations of the mean. 12:14.460 --> 12:17.580 And then within the mean, within a standard deviation 12:17.580 --> 12:18.413 of the mean 12:20.640 --> 12:24.063 at the end of the three month follow up. 12:28.170 --> 12:29.700 Same effect with depression, 12:29.700 --> 12:31.410 they started quite high on depression. 12:31.410 --> 12:35.610 Three standard deviations of above the mean 12:35.610 --> 12:37.350 between two and three. 12:37.350 --> 12:40.260 And within a standard deviation of the mean, 12:40.260 --> 12:43.563 after their three sessions, 12:45.180 --> 12:47.613 we did a 15 month follow-up study, 12:48.450 --> 12:53.450 which I mentioned that 84% were functioning normally. 12:55.380 --> 13:00.000 We then divided the groups into those who had complete PTSD 13:00.000 --> 13:01.863 and those who had partial PTSD, 13:02.790 --> 13:06.907 meaning those who had PTSD symptoms 13:08.460 --> 13:10.680 but didn't meet the full diagnosis. 13:10.680 --> 13:15.280 Those persons having full PTSD got as much benefit 13:16.290 --> 13:20.670 as and change as those who had partial PTSD. 13:20.670 --> 13:25.670 And again, we see how they did on intrusion 13:26.220 --> 13:28.143 and avoidance symptoms. 13:31.200 --> 13:33.963 And now I'll move into phantom limb pain. 13:35.490 --> 13:37.560 It may not be intuitively obvious, 13:37.560 --> 13:42.560 but phantom limb pain has a lot in common with PTSD. 13:46.500 --> 13:50.520 For example, 20 years after amputation, 13:50.520 --> 13:54.450 70% of amputees still have phantom limb pain. 13:54.450 --> 13:59.450 Less than 8% show any kind of permanent benefit 13:59.790 --> 14:02.553 from any treatment that's available. 14:04.320 --> 14:08.673 And our work with phantom limb pain, 14:09.990 --> 14:14.740 With leggy amputees, we got elimination of phantom limb pain 14:15.660 --> 14:20.373 with 80% in our case series. 14:21.240 --> 14:25.720 And this illustrates our first two clients 14:27.060 --> 14:29.980 with phantom limb pain that 14:31.110 --> 14:34.260 their pain levels started at about six 14:34.260 --> 14:37.140 on a zero to 10 pain scale. 14:37.140 --> 14:41.763 And after three sessions, 14:43.080 --> 14:46.830 our first client went down to zero pain. 14:46.830 --> 14:50.580 Our second client went down to pain level of two. 14:50.580 --> 14:52.770 The reason that she stated two 14:52.770 --> 14:56.913 was that she had to have stump revision surgery, 14:57.960 --> 14:59.970 which is where they cut off another inch 14:59.970 --> 15:04.560 or two of the stump so that they can re pad the end 15:04.560 --> 15:08.430 of the stump because the bone had started coming 15:08.430 --> 15:10.650 through the end of the stump. 15:10.650 --> 15:14.820 So it was reparative revision surgery. 15:14.820 --> 15:16.450 And she was facing that 15:17.670 --> 15:20.970 and was afraid that she would develop phantom limb pain 15:20.970 --> 15:25.410 again and couldn't quite believe she'd gotten rid of it. 15:25.410 --> 15:27.363 But at one year follow up, 15:28.770 --> 15:32.073 then they both are down at zero. 15:33.150 --> 15:36.690 So that took a total of three sessions. 15:36.690 --> 15:38.790 In fact, they really both lost 15:38.790 --> 15:41.820 their phantom limb pain within the first session. 15:41.820 --> 15:46.540 We then did a case series with phantom limb pain 15:50.840 --> 15:53.790 with six more individuals. 15:53.790 --> 15:56.790 And this chart shows 15:56.790 --> 16:01.790 that we got large reduction in distress, 16:03.210 --> 16:07.290 even greater reduction in pain itself, 16:07.290 --> 16:09.510 reductions in depression 16:09.510 --> 16:13.080 and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms 16:13.080 --> 16:17.790 on a scale that relates to how large a change, 16:17.790 --> 16:20.010 large changes are in this area. 16:20.010 --> 16:21.150 Medium changes here. 16:21.150 --> 16:25.530 So we got huge changes in subjective disturbance 16:25.530 --> 16:28.860 and an elimination of pain. 16:28.860 --> 16:33.860 And what we learned is there was one place in the world, 16:34.980 --> 16:37.710 and it happened to be the University of Tubingen, 16:37.710 --> 16:41.970 where they could measure phantom limb pain in the brain, 16:41.970 --> 16:45.690 its existence in the first place in its disappearance. 16:45.690 --> 16:49.470 And they had shown this with arm amputees using the MEG, 16:49.470 --> 16:53.100 that's the magnetoencephalogram 16:53.100 --> 16:56.700 of which measures the magnetic emanations from the brain. 16:56.700 --> 17:01.470 It's like a multimillion dollar improvement 17:01.470 --> 17:06.470 on the EEG as it's measuring the magnetic emanations, 17:08.340 --> 17:11.010 which give better localization. 17:11.010 --> 17:15.390 And what they had found is, say, with an army amputee that, 17:21.038 --> 17:23.190 if the arm amputee was, 17:23.190 --> 17:24.990 who had the phantom limb pain, 17:24.990 --> 17:29.070 if their arm was anesthetized 17:29.070 --> 17:31.473 with a brachial block anesthesia, 17:33.240 --> 17:37.170 then the brain would normalize 17:37.170 --> 17:38.973 as measured by the MEG. 17:40.890 --> 17:41.930 And... 17:44.820 --> 17:47.073 when the anesthesia were off, 17:48.720 --> 17:51.340 the brain would reorganize 17:52.350 --> 17:54.810 in a way that showed the pain had returned. 17:54.810 --> 17:59.137 We thought, since we're getting success with EMDR 18:00.300 --> 18:04.530 and phantom limb pain, then we ought to be able 18:04.530 --> 18:09.530 to go there and use EMDR with these amputees 18:10.170 --> 18:13.470 and find the same results, 18:13.470 --> 18:17.010 only more long lasting with EMDR. 18:17.010 --> 18:20.460 So my late wife and I went 18:20.460 --> 18:24.640 to the University of Tubingen 18:25.530 --> 18:28.020 and this is the MEG itself. 18:28.020 --> 18:31.900 It looks like a giant hairdryer 18:33.300 --> 18:37.080 and has to be in a room 18:37.080 --> 18:41.520 that's protected from the earth's magnetic radiation 18:41.520 --> 18:43.570 in order to measure these minute 18:45.270 --> 18:47.550 emanations that come out 18:47.550 --> 18:50.370 and are able to show the presence 18:50.370 --> 18:52.263 or absence of phantom limb pain. 18:59.730 --> 19:01.203 I think that, 19:04.230 --> 19:09.230 well, let me, let's say that my right arm is amputated, 19:10.620 --> 19:13.443 then on the contralateral side of my brain, 19:14.520 --> 19:17.020 those neurons have nothing to do 19:18.750 --> 19:22.960 and they get recruited 19:24.360 --> 19:27.000 when the lip is stimulated 19:27.000 --> 19:30.220 and the more the lip is stimulated 19:31.500 --> 19:34.383 and the person then, 19:36.780 --> 19:41.780 they can figure out where it ought to be 19:42.060 --> 19:44.970 located on the contralateral side. 19:44.970 --> 19:46.500 And if it's located somewhere different, 19:46.500 --> 19:49.500 the degree of that angle, the greater the angle, 19:49.500 --> 19:51.200 the greater the phantom limb pain. 19:52.770 --> 19:54.700 So I'm gonna back up for a minute 19:55.860 --> 19:58.740 and talk a little bit 19:58.740 --> 20:02.133 about what we actually do in an EMDR session. 20:05.550 --> 20:08.280 Let's take a fairly neutral case, 20:08.280 --> 20:13.280 like an automobile accident victim. 20:15.780 --> 20:19.170 I would ask the individual 20:19.170 --> 20:23.580 to get an image in their brain 20:23.580 --> 20:25.830 of the worst part of the accident. 20:25.830 --> 20:27.990 As they held the image in mind, 20:27.990 --> 20:30.150 I would ask them a few questions about the thoughts 20:30.150 --> 20:33.120 and the feelings that that image brings up. 20:33.120 --> 20:36.180 And then I would ask them to hold all of that in mind, 20:36.180 --> 20:38.610 the image and the thoughts and the feelings 20:38.610 --> 20:40.320 and move their eyes rapidly back 20:40.320 --> 20:42.690 and forth for about 30 seconds. 20:42.690 --> 20:46.500 Now, just about everybody has difficulty doing that. 20:46.500 --> 20:49.080 So I help out by just having 'em track on the end 20:49.080 --> 20:51.030 of my pen for 30 seconds. 20:51.030 --> 20:53.040 At the end of the 30 seconds, 20:53.040 --> 20:55.150 I would ask them to let the image go 20:56.010 --> 20:58.500 and take a deep breath 20:58.500 --> 21:01.290 and look inward and see what was there in their brain 21:01.290 --> 21:03.600 at that point, whatever is there, 21:03.600 --> 21:05.700 I would ask them to hold that in mind. 21:05.700 --> 21:07.560 Again, go through the eye movements. 21:07.560 --> 21:11.730 So we follow the the individual's train 21:11.730 --> 21:15.060 of associations, wherever they go, 21:15.060 --> 21:17.523 using the eye movements each step of the way. 21:19.776 --> 21:22.633 There is one other part to what we do, 21:23.490 --> 21:25.170 and that is because we're dealing 21:25.170 --> 21:27.870 with people who are traumatized, 21:27.870 --> 21:31.950 we want this to be safe as well as effective. 21:31.950 --> 21:33.960 And so the first thing we actually do is set up 21:33.960 --> 21:35.550 what's called a safe place. 21:35.550 --> 21:36.840 And a safe place is any place 21:36.840 --> 21:39.120 that they can think of where they feel safe, 21:39.120 --> 21:41.260 comfortable, a sense of 21:43.920 --> 21:47.550 ease or wellbeing. 21:47.550 --> 21:49.680 And then they're instructed that if any point 21:49.680 --> 21:51.363 in the rest of what we do, 21:54.480 --> 21:57.690 if they feel overwhelmed by their feelings, 21:57.690 --> 21:59.490 they give us a hand signal 21:59.490 --> 22:02.520 to stop and then we stop and bring up the safe place. 22:02.520 --> 22:05.640 So it acts as an escape patch if we need it. 22:05.640 --> 22:07.240 Now that's the entire procedure 22:08.160 --> 22:11.100 and it's very simple, but it's simple 22:11.100 --> 22:14.610 like chess is simple, the basic moves are simple, 22:14.610 --> 22:17.280 but as you go through it, it gets more complex 22:17.280 --> 22:18.690 because everybody's different. 22:18.690 --> 22:21.600 Everybody has different chains of association. 22:21.600 --> 22:25.110 And the therapist's basic rules are if the process 22:25.110 --> 22:27.120 is flowing, you stay out of the way. 22:27.120 --> 22:28.680 If it gets stuck in some way, 22:28.680 --> 22:31.650 then you intervene in some highly prescribed ways 22:31.650 --> 22:34.410 to help it get unstuck. 22:34.410 --> 22:37.180 So that is 22:38.130 --> 22:39.660 what happens in EMDR. 22:39.660 --> 22:42.820 And it leads to questions such as 22:44.430 --> 22:47.340 why does a strange sounding procedure 22:47.340 --> 22:48.873 like that do anything? 22:49.920 --> 22:53.040 And we have some scientific evidence 22:53.040 --> 22:55.290 and we have some educated guesses. 22:55.290 --> 22:57.930 Now, the scientific evidence has to do with, 22:57.930 --> 23:01.000 first of all, 20 years of 23:03.030 --> 23:04.890 brain imaging, 23:04.890 --> 23:09.240 where with brain imaging you can show initially 23:09.240 --> 23:10.950 that when the person thinks of their trauma, 23:10.950 --> 23:12.150 their brain lights up in a way 23:12.150 --> 23:14.553 that shows their under intense distress. 23:15.960 --> 23:17.550 And after successful treatment, 23:17.550 --> 23:19.050 their brain now lights up in a way 23:19.050 --> 23:21.600 that shows this is a normal memory, 23:21.600 --> 23:24.840 not associated with intense distress. 23:24.840 --> 23:26.790 So it documents the changes, 23:26.790 --> 23:30.810 but it doesn't say why those changes occurred. 23:30.810 --> 23:33.180 And actually in the last two to three years, 23:33.180 --> 23:35.520 we are now able to use brain imaging 23:35.520 --> 23:39.970 that not only shows the beginning 23:41.160 --> 23:43.770 of an EMDR session in the end, 23:43.770 --> 23:47.070 but actually those brain recordings all the way through. 23:47.070 --> 23:49.680 And so you get to see how the brain changes 23:49.680 --> 23:51.850 during the course of 23:54.745 --> 23:55.653 the treatment. 23:56.640 --> 23:59.910 And so this has been done. 23:59.910 --> 24:04.890 We worked with a group in Italy who followed our protocols 24:04.890 --> 24:07.980 and they were able to, 24:07.980 --> 24:10.860 with PTSD in a single session, 24:10.860 --> 24:12.990 show how the brain lights up 24:12.990 --> 24:16.020 with PTSD and how it changes. 24:16.020 --> 24:18.120 So at the end of the session, 24:18.120 --> 24:21.000 PTSD is no longer there. okay? 24:21.000 --> 24:23.100 We worked with a group in Japan 24:23.100 --> 24:25.980 and they did a similar kind of brain imaging. 24:25.980 --> 24:28.620 Only now with phantom limb pain, 24:28.620 --> 24:31.410 an individual is that has phantom limb pain. 24:31.410 --> 24:34.680 We see how the brain lights up at the beginning 24:34.680 --> 24:39.060 with the pain and then we see how the brain changes 24:39.060 --> 24:43.020 during the course of the session to the endpoint 24:43.020 --> 24:46.170 where the person no longer has limb pain. 24:46.170 --> 24:50.490 What this means, and this is really the headline, 24:50.490 --> 24:54.480 what this means is that EMDR is the only form of therapy 24:54.480 --> 24:59.480 that has a proven neurobiological effect on the brain, 24:59.790 --> 25:03.600 not only with PTSD, but also with phantom limb pain. 25:03.600 --> 25:05.523 And so from this, 25:06.900 --> 25:11.900 we really are pushing the frontiers of science. 25:13.470 --> 25:17.100 This kind of work needs to be replicated, 25:17.100 --> 25:19.560 needs to be studied further. 25:19.560 --> 25:20.393 And 25:24.707 --> 25:29.093 the things that my late wife and I 25:29.940 --> 25:32.940 and others in the EMDR field have been able to do 25:32.940 --> 25:37.170 in terms of pushing those frontiers, 25:37.170 --> 25:39.030 we feel very excited about. 25:39.030 --> 25:41.130 We feel very grateful for. 25:41.130 --> 25:45.390 And the last 25 years of my life working with EMDR 25:45.390 --> 25:49.950 and with my friend, my lover, 25:49.950 --> 25:54.100 my helpmate, my partner, have been really the most 25:55.260 --> 25:58.530 exciting 25 years of my life. 25:58.530 --> 26:00.850 And I feel thoroughly 26:02.250 --> 26:05.220 blessed and grateful to have been able 26:05.220 --> 26:08.700 to be a part of pushing 26:08.700 --> 26:13.700 the edges of science. 26:13.800 --> 26:15.270 So thank you very much. 26:15.270 --> 26:16.728 (audience applauding) 26:16.728 --> 26:19.311 (upbeat music) 26:31.713 --> 26:34.130 (soft music)