[etrevino]

It doesn't just have to be the eye movements. They'll also use little tappers or paddles that sit in your hand and vibrate alternately. They also have ones with sound that do something similar. For me, the vibrating paddles plus the sound works best, but they all work.

It's fascinating.

[polishdude20]

This reminds me of a thing I do when I prepare for a cold shower. I rhythmically start walking in place. Just moving my weight from one foot to the other at a constant pace. At the same time, I breathe in and out at the same pace.

I've noticed this helps me take the shock of the cold water so much better. I feel like it helps my emotional mind latch onto a simple task. It's like when you're air drumming and you nail all of the parts in a song and you feel great because there's something so satisfying about your mind predicting an outcome and then that our coming happening rhythmically. I feel it's the same but on a simpler scale when doing my steps and breathing.

[renewiltord]

Holy shit, I do the same thing except I’m sort of running in place. Hahaha we’re all the same.

[polishdude20]

Probably same reason soldiers march. It's a collective dance-like experience.

[kanonieer]

> They'll also use little tappers or paddles that sit in your hand and vibrate alternately.

Could you point to a source on this? Genuinely curious to see what these items look like, I searched but no relevant results.

[etrevino]

They look like this: https://www.healthyplace.com/sites/default/files/uploads/201...

There are some that let you hook up headphones as well. It's all about bilateral stimulation and some people get it better through touch as opposed to visually. From the APA:

"During EMDR therapy, clinical observations suggest that an accelerated learning process is stimulated by EMDR’s standardized procedures, which incorporate the use of eye movements and other forms of rhythmic left-right (bilateral) stimulation (e.g., tones or taps). While clients briefly focus on the trauma memory and simultaneously experience bilateral stimulation (BLS), the vividness and emotion of the memory are reduced."

https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/treatments/eye-movement-r...

[kanonieer]

Thank you!