Neuroplasticity, EMDR, and the Role of Healing Childhood Trauma

The Power of Neuroplasticity

Studies on neuroplasticity have grown increasingly popular in recent years. Once, scientists believed the brain was fixed and unchanging in adulthood.

However, research over the past few decades has shown that the brain can change, create new neural pathways, and even produce new neurons — a process called neurogenesis (Doidge, 2015).

This is a game-changer: if the brain can change, then we can change the way we think, process emotions, and even improve our mood.

Neural Pathways and Repetition

Neural pathways strengthen through repetition. A common way to describe this process is:
“The neurons that fire together, wire together.”

• Positive experiences (love, nurturance, safety) build healthy relational pathways.
• Negative experiences (abuse, neglect, fear) reinforce unhealthy pathways.

Children raised in abusive or neglectful homes often develop pathways that normalize unhealthy relationships. As adults, they may unconsciously repeat these patterns, leading to anxiety, depression, or PTSD.

The Three Parts of the Brain

The brain has three main parts:

1. Reptilian Brain (Brain Stem): survival functions like breathing, sleep, body temperature.
2. Limbic System: emotions, attachment, and danger signals.
3. Neocortex: rational thought, language, planning, impulse control.

When events occur, the thalamus (in the limbic system) acts as a filter, sending signals to both the amygdala (danger detection) and the frontal lobe (reasoning).

But because the amygdala is faster, we react first and think later.

Trauma and Brain Function

For people with PTSD, the thalamus filter becomes weakened. This results in sensory overload and difficulty distinguishing what is relevant. To cope, some individuals shut down or numb through substances (Van Der Kolk, 2015).

Brain scans show:

• During trauma, activity in Broca’s area (speech) decreases.
• At the same time, the right brain (sensory memories: touch, smell, sound, images) becomes hyperactive.

This is why trauma is not remembered as a coherent story but as fragments of sensations, emotions, and images. Survivors may feel frozen and unable to speak.

Why EMDR Works

Research suggests that in PTSD, the traumatic memory is stored in the nervous system in the same way it was originally experienced (Shapiro, 2001).

For example, survivors of childhood sexual abuse may still feel as though the trauma is happening in the present, even years later. The amygdala makes no distinction between past and present — so the body relives the trauma whenever triggered (Van Der Kolk, 2014).

EMDR in Practice

In EMDR therapy:

• Clients don’t need to share every detail of their trauma with the therapist.
• The process is experiential — focusing on sensations, emotions, or images as they arise.
• Clients observe the memory like a movie or snapshot, while staying grounded in the present.

Through bilateral stimulation (eye movements, sounds, or tapping), the brain begins to reprocess the trauma. Over time, the brain installs new neural pathways that create healthier patterns of relating to self and others.

The Hope of Neuroplasticity and EMDR

Healing from childhood trauma is not easy, but it is possible. EMDR takes advantage of the brain’s natural capacity for neuroplasticity, helping survivors create new patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior.

For those who have spent years reliving the past, EMDR offers hope — the chance to build a future no longer defined by trauma.

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