Can EMDR Therapy Help People With Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has helped patients recover from traumatic events for decades. The process works through guided sessions, in which a patient recounts traumatic memories while stimulating both sides of the brain. Surprisingly, modified EMDR therapy can also help patients with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. One 2019 study, for example, found that EMDR therapy led to notable improvements in people with ASD. But how does a therapy meant for post-traumatic stress disorder relieve autism?

Recovering From Past Traumas

To understand the benefits of EMDR for ASD, it's important to know more about living with autism. Autism decreases a person's ability to process and respond to social cues. It can also cause hypersensitivity and a tendency to fixate on past events. A person with ASD may have suffered countless traumas through bullying and social embarrassment. Without a healthy way to process these experiences, they can struggle alone with untreated anxiety, guilt, and fear from early childhood.

ASD and PTSD often share symptoms, and so trauma can be easy to overlook in patients with autism. Social avoidance, repetitive thoughts, and trouble maintaining focus characterize both disorders. Because of these similarities, however, EMDR may effectively treat trauma and its underlying causes in patients with ASD.

Learning to Handle Anxiety

During an EMDR session, patients talk through past experiences with a trained counselor. As they speak, they stimulate the brain through movements on both sides of the body, usually by moving the eyes or tapping the left and right knees. This is called bilateral stimulation, and it's thought to reduce anxiety and overcome mental barriers. In addition, EMDR teaches patients to handle obtrusive thoughts and anxiety while going about their day.

Strengthening Connections in the Brain

EMDR's ability to heal ASD-related trauma ties into its original purpose, but why does it also seem to reduce other symptoms of autism? The reason might have to do with its approach to brain symmetry. People with ASD tend to have slight irregularities in the bilateral symmetry of their brains. These minor differences could explain the behaviors associated with the disorder. Strengthening connections between the left and right sides of the brain might relieve some of the symptoms of ASD, though further study is required. 

Adapting EMDR Treatments to ASD

If you or a loved one live with ASD and are curious about EMDR, contact a local AMDR therapist today. A standard EMDR treatment plan will likely need to be modified for ASD, so you'll have to find the right therapist to meet your needs. With persistence and a bit of luck, however, you could find the daily symptoms and hardships of autism spectrum disorder significantly improve with this treatment.